UNIVERSITY PARK — Penn State women’s hockey fell to No. 7/8 Saint Lawrence in the first round of the NCAA tournament, ending a successful season, on Thursday, March 13.
This was the second season in a row the Saints and the Nittany Lions met in the first game of the NCAA tournament. A year ago, Saint Lawrence eeked out a 1-0 win over Penn State.
Looking for revenge this year, the Nittany Lions couldn’t get it done, falling 4-1 and losing in the first round of the NCAA tournament for the third year in a row.
The Saints were able to jump out to a quick lead, scoring three times in the first period. From there Penn State played a game of catchup. A third-period goal from Kendall Butze gave the Nittany Lions a little hope, but an empty netter a few minutes later from Saint Lawrence put the game to bed.
Despite the upsetting finale, Penn State has much to be happy about heading into the offseason.
For starters, the 2024-25 campaign concluded with 31 wins, the most in program history. This included 19 conference wins and a few against the nation’s best in No. 4 Minnesota, No. 13 UConn and No. 14 Northeastern.
The Nittany Lions also earned their third straight Atlantic Hockey Association (AHA) championship with a 4-1 win over Mercyhurst.
On the individual side, Tessa Janecke tied the program season record with 53 points on 24 goals and 29 assists. Her performances saw her take home the Meghan Agosta AHA Player of the Year and Vicki Bendus AHA Forward of the Year.
Also, amongst the award winners was Butze with the Molly Byrne AHA Best Defenseman award and head coach Jeff Kampersal who won AHA Coach of the Year.
Both Janecke and Butze are juniors and are expected to return to Happy Valley for the 2026 season. Both have now lost in the first round of the NCAA tournament in all three years they have been on the team.
