Penn State women’s hockey falls victim to own ‘bad habits’ in tie against RIT

Inconsistency plagues Penn State.

The blue and white tied RIT 2-2 on Saturday afternoon at Pegula Ice Arena.

The tie marked the second time the two teams ended a game in a deadlock this campaign, with the first coming back on Jan. 15 in Rochester, New York.

Coach Jeff Kampersal was not pleased with his team's effort.

“Simply, we're a team that thinks we're better than we are,” Kampersal said. “When we play teams, we think we're better than we have bad habits, make bad decisions and half-assed efforts.”

The fifth-year coach mentioned that all the blame shouldn't be placed on the players and that he deserves some of the blame.

“As a coach, I haven't done a good job because I know when it's coming, and I can't fix it,” Kampersal said. “They need somebody else to come in here and figure that stuff out.”

The Nittany Lions scored the first goal of the game when fifth-year senior forward Natalie Heising found twine just nine minutes into the contest.

Heising’s lamp lighter set a new program record for goals in a season with 20, surpassing her record of 19 she set back in the 2017-18 season.

Despite taking a one-goal advantage Kampersal wasn’t pleased with his team’s effort afterward.

“Natalie scored nine minutes into the game, and we think alright, we can take our foot off the pedal,” Kampersal said. “We just have to remain consistent.”

The Nittany Lions came into the game having not allowed a goal in their last three games and midway through the second period, that streak came to a close.

Tigers’ senior forward Jordan Marchese beat sophomore goalie Josie Bothun, tying the game at one midway through the second.

The Tigers then took the lead in the contest just minutes into the third period when freshman forward Kylie Aquaro found the back of the net.

Kampersal, who typically shows praise for his defense, wasn’t pleased with its performance.

“When they play, we can beat anybody. When they're in a battle, they'll compete and go hard,” Kampersal said. “When they start talking about things that are not hockey before the game, I know we're in trouble.”

Just four minutes after RIT took the lead, the blue and white knotted the game at two with a goal from sophomore forward Kiara Zanon.

Zanon now has 12 goals on the season but mentioned that her goal involved a bit of luck.

“Karley took a great shot on net, and I got kinda lucky batting it out of the air,” Zanon said. “We had them pinned in the zone for a long time before that, so it was just a result of hard work and effort from the lines before and capitalizing there.”

The first line of Heising, Zanon and sophomore forward Alyssa Machado finished the contest with two goals, two assists and 16 shots on goal.

Although the first line created a lot of scoring chances, Kampersal wasn’t quick to heap praise on the trio.

“They scored two, and I think they got two scored on them,” Kampersal said. “They were average like everybody else.

The blue and white came into the game averaging 36.8 shots per game and finished with 45, with the captain Heising leading the way with eight of her own.

Despite the gaudy number of shots, Zanon feels the team needs to do a better job of capitalizing on those opportunities when it gets them.

“We have had plenty of games where we are over 30 to 40 shots, and we're not capitalizing on them,” Zanon said. “That’s something we really have to figure out going into playoffs and tomorrow as well.”

Penn State is back in action on Saturday afternoon, and Kampersal said he hopes his team displays a better effort level.

“We go through the same protocol, the same preparation, and we warned them how hard they work,” Kampersal said. “They tied us at RIT, so our players should know, and there should be a little extra motivating factor there.”