Lady icers bring to close season of improvement

It was quite fitting the Lady Icers ended their regular season schedule with an intrasquad Blue-White game Saturday at the ice pavilion.

Although disappointed the game originally scheduled with Princeton was canceled, the exhibition was symbolic of what the Lady Icers accomplished this season: improving their overall skills, having fun and most importantly, establishing themselves as the Penn State women's ice hockey team.

"This year we came in with a more serious attitude," said assistant coach Jessica Ferrar. "We played much more and better competition which has improved our overall team skill. Right now the girls understand that winning is on the back burner, and that increasing our knowledge and skill of the game is what's important."

"The major difference between this year and last year is the number of games we have played," said Lady Icer center Ellen Zajko. "We only played two college teams last year, and the rest of our schedule was filled with young travel and local teams. By playing other schools we have become more organized on the ice and improved our team unity."

Behind the increasing improvement of the Lady Icers has been a patient and helpful coaching staff, led by coach Vinny Scalamogna. Along with teaching basic hockey skills to a relatively young and inexperienced team, this year's staff had to get the team mentally prepared to face other programs that have been established for several years. Despite limited ice time and practices, the Lady Icers feel the coaches have done just that.

"The coaching staff was always making sure that we were giving all we had to give," said Lady Icer Anne Leone, "even if we were down by a lot in the game."

An example of this "never-say-die" attitude the Lady Icer squad possessed was evident in its performance against heavily favored Boston University on Oct. 25 , one of the top teams in the nation. Trailing 5-0, the Lady Icers shook off early game jitters and scored three unanswered goals to narrow the margin. After losing the game 5-3, Scalamogna credited the late rally to the team's hard work and conditioning.

"The BU game would have to be the most memorable moment of the season," said goaltender Kathy Beckford. "At first we were kind of in awe of the building and environment, but as we were playing I said to myself, 'Wow, this is a great team but we are playing really well.' "

Two weeks from now the Lady Icers will compete in the Women's College Club Championship Tournament in Potsdam, N.Y, a regional competition composed of various eastern women's club hockey teams. The invitation to the tournament shows the amount of respect the Lady Icers have gained in only their sophomore campaign.