Women's Jersey Countdown: #14 Darby Kern

Sophomore - Forward - 5'11" - Venetia, PA

Darby Kern, entering her second year in the program, remains one of the more intriguing Nittany Lions. At 5'11", she stands out as a big player on a small team, and Kern's wingspan makes her quite useful on the forecheck, where opposing defenders often struggle to find a way to pass around her stick. The product of a Penn State family, as well as Peters Township High School and a Pittsburgh Penguins Elite program that has already become a PSU pipeline (teammates Stephanie Walkom, Jill Holdcroft and Tess Weaver played there as well) found herself in the stands for the early stages of the 2012-13 season. However, she rapidly gained Josh Brandwene's favor with her efforts after Thanksgiving break and made her collegiate debut on November 30, 2012 at Mercyhurst. Kern went on to play in 18 of Penn State's final 21 games, grabbing her first career point in the January 4th rout of Division III Chatham.

Career Statistics:
Season	GP	G	A	Pts.	PIM	PP	SH	GW	GT
2012-13	18	0	1	1	4	0	0	0	0
NCAA Career	18	0	1	1	4	0	0	0	0

Fifteen Lions Receive CHA Academic Accolades

Tess Weaver is now a member of the all-academic team in two different conferences

College Hockey America announced on Monday that 15 members of the 2012-2013 Nittany Lions women's team have been named to the CHA All-Academic Team, an honor given to student-athletes who record a grade point average of 3.0 or better during all in-season academic periods.

The Penn Staters recognized include forwards Kate Christoffersen, Hannah Hoenshell, Jill Holdcroft, Darby Kern, Emily Laurenzi, Kendra Rasmussen, Tess Weaver, Jenna Welch and Katie Zinn, defenders Jeanette Bateman, Paige Jahnke, Lindsay Reihl, Stephanie Walkom and Sarah Wilkie, along with goaltender Brooke Meyer. All except the graduated Christoffersen and Zinn, who transferred to the University of British Columbia after the season, are returning to the team in 2013-2014. Most of PSU's winners will be part of a massive sophomore class, with Zinn, Christoffersen, graduate student Reihl, senior Welch and junior Weaver the exceptions.

Christoffersen and Reihl were both picked as Big Ten Distinguished Scholars on July 10th, an award requiring a 3.7 GPA for the previous academic year. They also joined Weaver in winning Academic All-Big Ten selection in May, giving the trio the rare distinction of honors from two different conferences. Jess Desorcie, Taylor Gross and Cara Mendelson also won the latter Big Ten award which, like the CHA, requires a 3.0 GPA - but unlike the CHA measures cumulatively while also blocking freshmen from eligibility. Eighteen players of the 27 on last year's roster have now won some sort of award for their academic performance.

In all, 77 CHA players received that league's distinction, with Robert Morris' 21 leading the way. Additionally, 11 of the 77 were named co-winners of the Student-Athlete of the Year award for carrying a perfect 4.0: Kendra Broad (Lindenwood), Celeste Brown (RIT), Gina Buquet (Mercyhurst), Lauren Jones (Mercyhurst), Katelyn Scott (Robert Morris), Alison Wickenheiser (Lindenwood), Amy Stober (Lindenwood), Chelsea Witwicke (Lindenwood), Ali Binnington (RIT), Julia DiTondo (Mercyhurst) and Nicole Hensley (Lindenwood).

Here's the full release from CHA, including a list of all 77 winners:

Penn State-RIT Photo Gallery

Photos from Friday afternoon's visit to RIT for the CHA playoff contest between the Tigers and the Nittany Lion women. Click any photo to enlarge.

Note: Ordinarily I like to do a campus tour, but in RIT's case, I already handled some of that task back in October when the men's team played in Rochester. I may add to that tomorrow, or I may not, but for now, here are a few from the rink (with the last one from what will be a rink).

It was casual Friday for RIT's pep band

My stick shot from last week didn't include the big clubs, so I fixed that

As usual, captain Taylor Gross helps junior goaltender Nicole Paniccia warm up

Sophomore forward Tess Weaver

Freshman forward Birdie Shaw

Freshman defender-turned-center Taylor McGee

Sophomore forward Jess Desorcie (through glass, sorry about that)

Freshman forward Darby Kern

Freshman defender Sarah Wilkie

Gross

The helmets lined up on the bench is always a favorite shot

The game's opening faceoff, as seen from the press box

Josh Brandwene and the PSU bench during the third period

Pile driving at RIT's Polisseni Center - about one year after happening at PSU

W: Penn State 1 vs. Lindenwood 3

Box score // GoPSUSports.com recap // LindenwoodLions.com recap

The Nittany Lion women (7-20-1, 1-13-1 CHA) started their final home series of the inaugural NCAA season well enough, as a solid first period Friday afternoon was punctuated by Emily Laurenzi's silky smooth goal off of a give-and-go with Birdie Shaw. From that point forward, though, it was all Lindenwood (4-23-2, 4-9-2 CHA) in what was likely a death blow to the Nittany Lions' chances of finishing out of the CHA cellar.

Here's the Lindenwood recap, followed by the live blog.

---

The Lindenwood women's hockey team picked up another CHA victory on Friday afternoon with a 3-1 road win over Penn State.

The Lady Lions dominated special teams play by going two-for-four on the power play and killing off all four Penn State power plays. Lindenwood finished the game with nine more shots as it had a season-high 45.

Penn State struck first in the game with a goal at the 14:40 mark of the first period. That period was the only one in which the Nittany Lions had more shots than Lindenwood.

The Lady Lions began to control the action early in the second period and it finally paid dividends at the 12:15 mark when Alyssa West scored a power-play goal, with an assist going to Alison Wickenheiser. Lindenwood finished the period with a 14-7 advantage in shots.

The turning point of the game also happened late in the second period. Penn State went on the power play with a little over two minutes remaining, but West was able to get the puck into Lindenwood's offensive zone and kept it trapped there for a lengthy amount of time. Before the Nittany Lions could get out of Lindenwood's zone, they committed a penalty that gave Lindenwood a power play that extended into the third period. The Lady Lions took advantage by scoring 37 seconds into the final period on a goal by Chelsea Witwicke, with assists from Allysson Arcibal and West.

Lindenwood's penalty kill then helped turn away Penn State's best chance to tie the game. The Lady Lions had two penalties within 1:44 of each other, but they were able to kill off both power plays, including a five-on-three for 16 seconds. Penn State also had a man advantage late in the game when it pulled its goalie, but Lindenwood was able to clinch the game when Lyndsay Kirkham was able to get the puck into Lindenwood's offensive end and Caitlyn Post scored an empty-net goal.

Lindenwood is now on a three-game unbeaten streak in league action. The Lady Lions will look to complete their first series sweep of the season tomorrow afternoon with another contest against Penn State at 2 p.m.

Penn State-Chatham Photo Gallery

Photos from Friday night's Penn State-Chatham women's game. All are by and courtesy of Steven Hass. Click for full size.

Darby Kern made a great play to set up Kendra Rasmussen in the first period.

Shannon Yoxheimer's shots, appropriately, often leave a vapor trail.

Captain Taylor Gross in her customary net-front position.

Yoxheimer got her typical two goals and 10 shots in early.

Jenna Welch was fantastic on both of PSU's PKs and added a late goal.

As usual, scrappy Micayla Catanzariti was in the middle of the action.

Jordin Pardoski (4) celebrated her birthday by scoring.

Sophomore Tess Weaver scored her first NCAA goal late in the first period.

Hannah Hoenshell dangled her way to a brace.

Local kid Jill Holdcroft scored 21 seconds into the second period.

Brooke Meyer made six third-period saves to close out the shutout.

Birdie Shaw is tough, as CU's Maike Blakely learned the hard way.

W: Penn State 10 vs. Chatham (NCAA DIII) 0

Box score // GoPSUSports.com recap // Chatham.edu recap

Josh Brandwene and Jordin Pardoski postgame video // GoPSUSports.com photos

The Nittany Lion women (6-12-1, 1-8-1 CHA) mauled NCAA Division III Chatham (1-8-0, 0-6-0 ECAC West) 10-0 to open the spring semester schedule Friday night at the Ice Pavilion.

Severely overmatched almost from puck drop, the Cougars - who lined up with just seven forwards and four defenders - witnessed PSU put on a stat-padding clinic. Nine of the Nittany Lions' ten goals came at even strength, helping every single PSU skater improve her plus-minus, with the defense tandem of Sarah Wilkie and Jordin Pardoski, along with forward Hannah Hoenshell, leading the way with +4 ratings. Additionally, every skater except Wilkie, Birdie Shaw and Lindsay Reihl registered at least one point and goaltenders Nicole Paniccia, Celine Whitlinger and Brooke Meyer each took one period of a shutout effort.

It's probably not worth recapping each goal in great detail, but here are a few of the highlights:

• After a surprisingly even first eight minutes of the game, Shannon Yoxheimer scored her team-high 11th and 12th goals of the season in rapid succession. The first came on the power play, with Jess Desorcie locating the Michigander slicing through the middle for the shot, while the second was a wicked snipe off of the rush just after a Paniccia blocker save.
• Hannah Hoenshell, who has to have some of the sauciest mitts in college hockey, scored two of her own - the first came just 26 seconds after Yoxheimer's second, while the other was a beautiful drag around besieged Cougars goalie Megan Buchanan late in the second period.
• Tess Weaver scored her first-ever NCAA goal at 17:06 of the first period, when she popped one past Buchanan from the right-wing circle in transition.
• Weaver skated on a line with Kendra Rasmussen and Darby Kern. All three had outstanding games, with Kern asserting a case for a continued increase in ice time. Her chip and retrieval around CU defender Abby Maier, along with the subsequent centering pass, set up one of Rasmussen's two goals.
• Last, but certainly not least, birthday girl Jordin Pardoski got the best present any hockey girl can get: a gino. Her blast at 7:54 of the second period officially turned the game from lopsided to a full-on rout.

PSU will try for a duplicate effort - while Chatham will try for better - Saturday night at 7:00 p.m. in the Ice Pavilion.

Penn State-Mercyhurst Photo Gallery II

Here are some photos I took at Mercyhurst University while visiting for Saturday afternoon's game between the Nittany Lion women and the Lakers. Click for full size.

---

A seatless chairback dedicated to Sister Damian Mlechick (1921-2004)

Tess Weaver (36) and Shannon Yoxheimer preparing to hit the ice

Nicole Paniccia stares down a shot during pregame

Kendra Rasmussen (13) looks to shoot on Brooke Meyer

The three goalie masks ready to go on the bench

The other end of the helmet spread - the forwards

I didn't really like the "anthem" shot I took on Friday, so here's another one

The Western New York Chapter of the Alumni Association took in the game

Penn State-Mercyhurst Photo Gallery

Here are some photos I took at Mercyhurst University while visiting for Friday night's game between the Nittany Lion women and the Lakers. Click for full size.

---

First up, a quick campus tour:

The Audrey Hirt Academic Center

O'Neil Tower, on the left, is Mercyhurst's signature building

Taylor Little Theatre has famous playwrights worked into the building's facade

Tullio Field, the home of Lakers football and lacrosse

Mercyhurst Ice Center's main entrance

Seeing Penn State's banner in other teams' arenas still hasn't gotten old

The Lakers are one of the most storied programs in women's hockey

The Mercyhurst Ice Center actually has chairback seats behind one goal

During pregame, Celine Whitlinger and Brooke Meyer held a conference

The Lakers enter from the corner opposite Penn State

A couple more shots from the pregame, including the next photo

The Nittany Lions on the blue line for the anthems.

The game's opening faceoff.

Casey McCullion (white coat) presides over the defensive end of the bench

Another top-down look at the bench

The team waits to step back on to the ice for the second period

Kendra Rasmussen and Jeanette Bateman attempt to win a puck battle

Hannah Hoenshell dumps in as her teammates look on