Nicole's NCAA Notebook: January 5, 2025

(Editor's note - Nicole leaves Tuesday for Nova Scotia to cover the IIHF U18 Women's World Championship. We will have some NCAA coverage over the next 2.5 weeks, but the tournament will take precedence.)

• Welcome back! I hope everyone had a happy and safe winter break.
• It's probably fair to say that few would have predicted the outcome of the Friendship Series tournament in Belfast. The two teams that went in ranked lost to their unranked opponents in the opening round, leaving Harvard and Boston University to face off for the title. The two teams are just 1.5 miles apart in Boston, so of course they had to fly all the way to Northern Ireland to play. Harvard took down #5 Minnesota Duluth in overtime while BU defeated #8 Quinnipiac in a shooutout. The Terriers took the championship game, defeating Harvard 3-2.
• The games were played on Olympic sized ice and all four teams looked gassed at points in all four games. I'd assume the rigors of travel and having spent some time off for exams and the holidays also played into it. Still, it was almost jarring to see the game slow down and the teams look like they couldn't keep up. The game was evolved so much in recent years that we rarely see that anymore.
• Penn State played their first-ever top-five matchup this weekend as they visited Ohio State. The Nittany Lions have done fantastic work to elevate their program and be highly-ranked, but to me the series really highlighted how big the gap is to those top three teams and the different in the level of games OSU is playing most weeks versus the level PSU is. The physicality and pace were a big jump up for Penn State. The Buckeyes dominated possession and prevented the Nittany Lions from ever really mustering much of anything. If they got the puck out, they went for a change. The forecheck kept them pinned and on the defensive for two straight games.
• Colgate with a good win over Boston College. Elyssa Biederman continues to be so crucial for the Raiders and is arguably the most important single player to a team right now.
• Watching/listening to the Friendship Series games from Belfast was a delight. I mean yes, I loved the announcer's accent, but overall they were just so joyful and excited to be showcasing women's hockey and talking about the level of talent.
• Goals of the week:

This beauty from Colgate's Elyssa Biederman

The stutter, the moves .. so good from Ohio State's Maxine Cimoroni

Penn State's Tessa Janecke set a new program record for career goals with 75 with this tally

Absolute laser from UConn's Julia Pellerin

Robbery by UConn's Sadie Hotles

Gorgeous start to finish from Maine's Lulu Ruchinski