Nicole's NCAA Notebook: November 17, 2025

• Listen, it’s hard to be on top and harder to stay on top. Before 10 days ago, Wisconsin had gone nearly a year without a loss. They’ve been wracked with injuries to start the season and had six players off with their national teams during the international break instead of resting on their bye week. All that can be true and it’s still been a rough stretch for the Badgers, who were frankly lucky to get away with a tie and shootout win against St. Cloud on Saturday. Sure, plenty of teams would love to have two ranked wins, a tie with shootout win and a loss, but the standards are different for the reigning national champs. They’ve been slow and sloppy, making bad decisions and passes and turning over the puck. Ava McNaughton made several breakaway and point blank saves on Saturday to keep her team alive. There are six games between them and the winter break, but they are traveling to Nashville for Thanksgiving and have Ohio State to close out the first half before they can rest and reset. Their depth has helped carry them through so far, but if they play like this against OSU, I’m not sure much could save them. 
• I mentioned them in last week’s Sticks Taps, but shout out again this week to Harvard, who continues to impress. They split their weekend series, beating #10 Yale and losing in OT to #13 Brown. But most importantly, they scored seven more goals this weekend. There will still be some growing pains, but I think the consistent, robust offense is the best possible sign that last season was the exception, not the rule for this team. 
• After a lot of questions raised last week, Colgate had me eating my words this week, ending Cornell’s undefeated season with a 3-0 win on Friday and losing 4-3 in OT on Saturday. It was the most consistent weekend they’ve had all season and it was nice to see the fight in them, particularly after a back and forth first period on Friday. They scored twice in the first 70 seconds of the second and then shut down on defense. 
• The final score definitely didn’t reflect it, but I was really impressed with Bemidji State against Minnesota on Friday. The teams were tied 2-2 heading into the third and then Minnesota pulled away, scoring four in the final frame. Obviously the Beavers ran out of steam and that’s something they’ll work on as a next step, but it’s no small feat to keep that offense relatively in check and also be able to break through themselves against Hannah Clark. BSU has long been able to stymie teams on defense, but they’re being much more competitive across the full sheet. That’s a really important move towards taking the next step. 
• There are so many outstanding freshmen this season and in particular, players not from North America. But while we had a preview of how good some of the European players are because of U18’s, I for one was much less familiar with St. Cloud’s Maria Mikaelyan. She’s been outstanding to start the season. It’s easy to see her background in figure skating in the way she skates and at 19 with some experience with the KRS Vanke Rays (where she played with SCSU assistant coach Noora Raty and connected with former SCSU and current PWHL Vancouver coach Brian Idalski), she has some size and maturity to her game that a lot of freshmen haven’t yet developed. Her vision and puck-handling were on display against Wisconsin this weekend and I can’t wait to see her continue to improve. 
• Penn State could not be on more of a roll and the whole roster is scoring goals and racking up assists. They outscored Syracuse 18-2 in their series this weekend. It will be interesting to see if anything can slow them down this year.
• Goals of the week:

The movement in OT from Brown's Monique Lyons and Sam Broz

St. Cloud's Maria Mikaelyan had a spectacular weekend against Wisconsin

From that same game, the moves from Kirsten Simms for UW

The turnover and goal from Elle Sproule to Morgan McGathey

Lots of good stuff from Brown this week - including this 200 foot shorty from India McDadi and Jade Iginla

Kate Sullivan's breakaway for New Hampshire

Stryker Zablocki's snipe to finish the hat trick

So much to love on this BC goal, most particularly the bat and shot from Alanna Devlin

Pretty passing from Colgate

This steal and buzzer-beating breakaway from Delaware's Kaitlin Finnegan