With only a month left in the regular season, we visited the Pittsburgh campus of Robert Morris, ready to go to battle. They are the defending champs of the CHA (Central Hockey Association), they currently sit atop the CHA standings this season, and are ranked #10 in the entire NCAA. The last time we faced off against them in the fall we played to two successive ties. The first game proved to be a repeat of the past as our team potted two third-period goals from sophomore, Abby Welch (her first of the season), and freshman, Natalie Heising, to force another tie. The second game of the weekend was a back and forth affair, which was very exciting for the Robert Morris fans to watch. There were a lot of fans there on Saturday, due to the fact that it was Robert Morris’ Fight Against Cancer game, which featured a ceremonial puck drop performed by a young RMU fan who had beaten childhood cancer. Despite the fact that Robert Morris is one of our biggest rivals, it was cool to support them on this special night.
The first period featured four power play goals, two from each team. Each time RMU scored, our team responded by putting the puck in the back of the net. During the period break, Robert Morris must have had a powerful pep talk because they came out flying in the second and third period, and our Penn State team just couldn’t catch up. After yet another power play goal put RMU up 3-2 in the second Coach Kampersal looked to liven up the team vibe by switching up the lines a little bit. Sophomore Katie McMillan was moved from defense up to forward, centering the line with Mieke and Sophie as wingers. It certainly generated a few more chances, but the RMU goalie turned away all the pucks that she saw. Late in the third period an RMU defenseman provided the final dagger by blasting in a slap shot bar-down (this means the shot hit the top cross-bar and then went in, it’s a pretty sick way to score), and we ended up losing 4-2.
Even though we played well in spurts, our coaching staff told us that we have to play consistently as a team for the entire 60 minutes of the game to win against teams like Robert Morris. With this in mind we headed into an odd weekday game against an out of conference opponent, Princeton. Luckily, the game was at home so we didn’t have to miss a ton of school traveling during the week. However, the Tuesday night game still threw a wrench into the schedules of my teammates and I, especially since I had a Tuesday night lab session AND a chemistry exam that night. Despite the scheduling headache, our team was super excited to play against Princeton because that was the school where Coach Kampersal was head coach for 21 seasons ( it’s also his alma mater). Their team was still kind of upset with us for “stealing” their coach, so we knew that it was going to be a passionate match-up.
Unfortunately for us, Princeton was coming off three straight wins, while we were coming off two physically draining games vs Robert Morris just a couple days ago. The first period was competitive between both teams, with some of our best chances of the game coming off a series of odd-man rushes early on. Princeton broke the ice by actually scoring a short-handed goal when we were on the power play, which deflated any momentum that our team had. We fought hard into the third period, but couldn’t create any good offensive chances. Princeton added a late goal and an empty net goal to seal the win, leaving us with a four game winless streak.
Our team is trying to find itself at a rather difficult point in the season. We have tied 13 games (almost record-breaking) and have been in almost every game until the end, but can’t find the W’s consistently.
After playing three games over the span of five days, in two different rinks, our team definitely deserved the much needed off weekend, and look to refocus against upcoming CHA opponents.
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