Blue White Illustrated

T here aren't a lot of places where it's feasible to play ice hockey outdoors in the spring, summer and fall. So as the pandemic dragged on last year, Penn State women's hockey coach Jeff Kam- persal urged his players to improvise. A few may have had access to indoor rinks or gyms, and others might have had some pieces of exercise equip- ment in the basement or garage, but the lockdown orders and widespread closures of athletic facil- ities across the country forced most to get cre- ative. Fortunately, Kampersal had plenty of sugges- tions stemming from his days as a young hockey player growing up in Massachu- setts. "I remember when I was little, I would drill a hole in a hockey stick and put a weight on the bottom and do wrist curls," he said. "Or do push-ups, go find a jungle gym or a tree branch and do pull-ups, whatever you need to do to make it work – shoot pucks in the driveway, the kind of old school hockey that they're probably not as used to as maybe my generation was. We did a lot of stuff outside, like street hockey." By the time they were ready to come back to campus in August, Kampersal was pleased with how his players had adapted to the unusual circumstances. "I think they made it work," he said. "It was definitely a challenging time, and some of our players were better positioned than others, but the others made up for it with creativity." Whatever they did, the Nittany Lions clearly put that time to good use, because they are now in the midst of the best sea- son in the program's nine-year history. Heading into a two-game series at RIT in late February, the Lions were 13-1-2 and were ranked eighth in the USCHO Division I poll. Of the top 10 point-producers in College Hockey America, seven were from Penn State, including the top five. And on the opposite end of the ice, goalie Josie Bothun was sporting a 1.39 goals-against average, seventh-best in the country. The Nittany Lions have been fueled in large part by a contingent of stellar fresh- men. Bothun has put together an excel- lent season in net, while Kiara Zanon, a forward from Fairport, N.Y., was leading the conference through 16 games with 24 points on eight goals and 16 assists. Two other freshmen – Lyndie Lobdell and Olivia Wallin – had 11 and nine points, re- spectively. Despite their abundant youth – nine of their 21 players have freshman eligibility – the Nittany Lions have gotten off to the hottest start in school history. Before this year, they had put together only one win- ning season since the program began var- sity competition in 2012 alongside the just-launched men's hockey team. Under their first coach, Josh Brandwene, the Lions went 17-16-4 in 2014-15, but two losing seasons followed, and after skidding to a 9-21-5 finish in 2016-17, Penn State hired Kampersal to take over the program. Kampersal had enjoyed great success at Princeton, his alma mater, guiding the Tigers to a pair of Ivy League titles and NCAA tournament appearances. At Penn State, he made an immediate difference, as the Lions allowed a league-low 1.92 goals per game in his first season. They reached the CHA semifinals that year, and in the two years that followed. But they finished below .500 all three years and were still awaiting their breakthrough. Now, that breakthrough appears to have its loyal and loud fan base. With no fans, it will be as difficult to prevail as champion as it will be to predict which team will show up on March 6 and be able to show off on March 7. Because Iowa returned nine starters and dominated its first five matches, it deserves to be labeled the odds-on favorite. But with coach Tom Brands having a documented case of COVID and the program on pause following positive tests among its wrestlers, Iowa is in the same boat as every other talented Big Ten team now forced to row upstream because of a lack of consistency. "It doesn't really help to get too ex- cited or get disappointed; it's just what it is," Sanderson said. "Our guys are going to get their opportunity. I think that we're just going to compete better every match, so we just want to get out there and compete. It's not going to do us any good to overthink it." Sanderson is tasked with keeping chins up throughout his program when spirits in these uncertain times might tend to drift downward. "I think we have a really exciting team. We have kids who are fun to watch wrestle," he said. "We have a team that, wherever we are in January [and February], can improve and get better as we move along, and hope- fully be in a position to really chal- lenge for the national tournament when we get to March." PSU WON'T HOST TRIALS The U.S. Olympic Wrestling Team Trials will not take place at Penn State as origi- nally scheduled, USA Wrestling an- nounced Feb. 8. The decision to move the trials stemmed from a variety of factors, including current COVID-19 health and safety guidelines and the desire to accommodate all partici- pants, sta; and fans. The trials had originally been set to take place at the Bryce Jordan Center in April 2020. As of mid-February, USA Wrestling was in negotiations to secure a new location for the 2021 competi- tion. Penn State is now set to host the trials in advance of the 2024 Games. ■ VARSITY VIEWS BRINGING THE HEAT The Penn State women's ice hockey team is enjoying the best season in the program's nine-year history | ZANON

• Cover