Penn State women’s hockey gets swept against No. 6 Colgate
After defeating Penn State on Friday 3-2, Colgate continued its winning ways on Saturday.
The Raiders came away with a 2-1 victory in a hard-fought battle. This series marked the first time the two programs have faced off since 2018, when they split the series.
Despite being held scoreless in the first period of Friday night's matchup, Colgate forward Kristýna Kaltounková got them on the board thirteen minutes into the game with a top-shelf bullet, giving them an early 1-0 lead.
Kaltounková dominated this series as she was responsible for four out of the five goals scored by Colgate throughout their games. She rang in two goals in the first game and assisted the third while scoring the first goal in the second game.
The Raiders' defense used this momentum to keep the Nittany Lions out of their defensive zone, forcing turnovers and taking away any scoring opportunity they could, limiting them to only four shots throughout the entire first period.
Before the Kaltounková goal, Penn State had two consecutive power plays where it was unable to make anything happen despite the man-up advantage.
The blue and white, in dire need of a hero, put defender Lyndie Lobdell on the front lines, and let her rip. As she did just that, she tallied her first goal of the season to tie the game at one seven minutes into the third period.
“They went off on a bad change,” Lobdell said. “I saw the opportunity, Kiara [Zanon] made a great pass, and I was just going all out at that point honestly.”
The Raiders did an excellent job exercising their depth in net, using Kayla Osborne in game one, and Hannah Murphy in game two. Both goaltenders have had shutout seasons, recording 79 saves between the two through five games.
Colgate came into this game with a 0.00 goals against average, making Penn State the first team to get a score on them this year, as well as putting an end to two goalies' perfect seasons.
The Nittany Lions shut down Colgate’s offense for 45 minutes of play, not allowing another goal.
With an overtime victory opportunity in the Nittany Lions' grasp, Raiders’ Danielle Serdachny took it away by scoring with one minute to play.
Penn State fought hard in the final 60 seconds, getting three shots on net before the buzzer went off, but were unable to finish as Colgate won the game 2-1.
Despite the loss, Nittany Lions goalie Josie Bothun put up a record performance with a career-high of 37 saves.
The Minnesota native holds the program record of 34 wins and 13 shutouts in just her third season at Penn State. She was the first Nittany Lion to earn the CHA Goaltender of the year in the 2020-21 season.
Before this series, Penn State started its season against some top-ranked opponents, including Wisconsin and Minnesota Duluth. Despite the slow start, head coach Jeff Kampersal is very optimistic going into their next series on the road.
“We want to be in this conversation, so playing against Wisconsin, Colgate, and Duluth, it’s like, we’re right there,” said Kampersal, “It's just a matter of a couple plays difference, so we’re excited about that.”
The star of game two, Lobdell, believes their 2-4 start does not define them. “I like to think of it like, ‘you never lose; you just win or learn.’ We’ll be back.”
Penn State is 1-0 on the road, looking to increase that as they head to Beantown to face Boston College in their next series.
Molly White is a junior majoring in Kinesiology. To contact her, email mkw5766@psu.edu.
