UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa.-The Penn State women's hockey team has many strong characteristics, and on of the most important of those for head coach Jeff Kampersal is one phrase: being humble. With a tremendous victory against then No. 5 Colgate two weeks ago, and a loss to Merrimack last weekend, the program is able to stay balanced through the early season highs and lows.
Kampersal hopes that his team will build off the two weekends of the season so far.
"They know they can beat anybody, but they also know they can lose to anybody," he said heading into this weekend. "We want to stay steady, stay consistent, and be playing hard until they tell you 'You can't play anymore.'"
The Nittany Lions tied Merrimack last Friday 1-1, but fell short to them on day two of the weekend, losing 2-1. Following a series split against Colgate the weekend before, the Nittany Lions are 1-2-1 on the year.
Despite the loss to Merrimack, the fans support for the team did not go unappreciated. The Nittany Lions had 1,804 fans to support them at Pegula Ice Arena last Saturday, breaking the previous attendance record of 1,795 set on Feb. 15, 2014.
"It was awesome," said Kampersal of last weekend's crowd. "I've seen a few men's games when they have full-house Roar Zones, but even to have as many people as we had chanting out the other goalie's name and cheering on our players, it just energizes you and makes you appreciate why we do what we do," Kampersal said.
The Nittany Lions will face Union Friday and Saturday this weekend. Even though the Penn State has a slightly better record for the 2018-19 season than this point last year, Kampersal doesn't want his team to be overly confident.
"We have no business to take anyone lightly," he said.
As is the case for many teams early in most seasons, Kampersal cites the aspect of surprise as helpful to the Nittany Lions in their win against Colgate. After seeing what the Penn State did against Colgate on tape, Merrimack came to Pegula with a solid plan of attack that helped an experienced Warriors team come out with a win and a tie.
In this week's series against Union, Kampersal hopes to see the same play from his Nittany Lions that he saw during the first and third periods on day two against Merrimack. Despite tying Merrimack the first day and losing the second, he still feels that the effort was much better from the Nittany Lions on day two.
"We need to be sure that we have that sort of incredible compete level, Kampersal said. He also emphasized "hustling to the puck, shooting from everywhere, defending hard, back-checking hard" and playing with "good habits"
He hopes that his team will find a consistent level of play going forward with the season, something he has found in a few of his players already, including freshman Anna Promersberger.
He notes that Promersberger has proven to be the consistent and reliable player that he is looking for in his team. Promersberger has had two good weekends at Colgate and Merrimack.
"I know exactly what I am going to get from her," Kampersal said.
That consistency is something that other players like captain Kelsey Crow have given the team and their coach on a regular basis as well.
Crow, Promersberger, and the rest of the Nittany Lions will play two contests at Union this weekend, on Oct. 12 and 13.
Next week, the team will return home to University Park to face Providence College on Oct. 19 and 20.
