Nicole's NCAA Notebook: December 8, 2025

• We made it to the end of the 1st half! It's not ever a perfect split, but it's winter break and most every team is done with games until the new year.
• At the break, Penn State has a 14 point lead atop the AHA with two games in hand over second and third place. Princeton has a 2.5 point lead over Clarkson in the ECAC, but Clarkson has played one fewer game. Northeastern is 11 points clear of Boston College atop Hockey East. Saint Anselm leads NEWHA by six points. And Wisconsin took back the top spot in the WCHA, five points ahead of Ohio State.
• Wisconsin's KK Harvey leads all scorers with 41 points. Her 30 assists are also the most in the country. Quinnipiac's Kahlen Lamarche leads all goal-scorers with 22. Ohio State's Hilda Svensson leads all rookies with 33 points on 12 goals and 21 assists.
• Penn State's Katie DeSa has the best goals against average at 1.17 while Brown's Anya Zupkofska and Connecticut's Tia Chan are tied with a 0.949 save percentage.
• I really didn't expect either team to sweep in the Wisconsin vs. Ohio State showdown, but the Badgers took all six points despite the Buckeyes looking strong to start Friday's game. Ava McNaughton played as good as she ever has for the Badgers, which certainly helped in keeping the OSU off the board.
• One thing I highlighted last week in what to watch was a need for Ohio State not to forget about defense as they pushed on offense. In Friday's game, when they were down 1-0 and pushing for an equalizer in the closing minutes, they absolutely forgot to pay attention to Wisconsin's transition. They got caught too front-footed and it let KK Harvey take off in the other direction where she scored the game-winning goal. On Saturday, it wasn't quite so dramatic, but Harvey took off on another breakaway when OSU was too casual with the puck at the top of the zone. Harvey picked a pocket and was gone. It felt like some of the youth on OSU showed in those plays. Few teams are going to be able to pull that off against the Buckeyes and in the run of play, it can be easy to fall back on what's worked so far and almost forget to play defense.
• Anyone with an aspiring defender should make sure they're spending time watching KK Harvey play. It's truly remarkable how much she continues to improve when she came in as an Olympian and was an All-American her freshman year. The details and nuances, particularly in her skating and east/west movement are outstanding.
• For all the teams I've been talking about and keeping an eye on in the ECAC, Princeton has flown somewhat under the radar. But with a weekend sweep of Cornell and Colgate, they jumped to the top of the standings. They've won seven in a row and Mackenzie Alexander has forced herself into the Rookie of the Year conversation.
• Goals of the week:

Boston College's Sammy Taber proved she's a two-sport athlete

The movement and backhanded pass from Taylor Otremba and the finish from Kamryn Van Batavia to win it in OT for Mankato

The strength of Maggie Scannell to come away with the puck to start, the way Laila Edwards uses her long reach to keep possession

Ashley Allard gets that pass off from the ice so Claire Murdoch can tie the game for UConn

Textbook from Minnesota's Nelli Laitinen and Abbey Murphy

Vermont's Stella Retrum through traffic

A two-for with Quinnipiac's Makayla Watson and Emerson Jarvis

Mercyhurst's Julia Schalin confused everyone from the cameraperson to the goalie

You have to wait for the replay to start to really get the impact of this Lily Shannon goal for Northeastern

KK Harvey with breakaway goals in back to back games for Wisconsin

Wisconsin Women’s Hockey on Instagram: “Caroline Harvey scored a breakaway 4-on-4 goal to put the Badgers up 2-0… And then she did it again the next day!”

1,378 likes, 7 comments - badgerwhockey on December 6, 2025: “Caroline Harvey scored a breakaway 4-on-4 goal to put the Badgers up 2-0… And then she did it again the next day!”.

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