A lot of players from the Lady Icers and the Pittsburgh Penguins. Interesting, is it because the Pittsburgh girls will only have to pay in-state tuition?
There are multiple reasons: (I am not sure that tuition played much of a decision)
1. A LOT of PA kids, especially Pittsburgh, grow up wanting to goto Penn State, I suspect the same as a lot of Minn kids want to goto The U. As soon as PSU announced ice hockey, many of the Penguins girls reached out (most even during the rumor phase) to the club coaches at the time, expressing their interest. I know for 2 of the girls it was their #1 choice.
2. Jill Holdcroft, who played for Pittsburgh as it was the closest tier 1 program (3 hrs away), she lives in State College and played Varsity (boys) ice hockey for State College HS. Her dad played on the PSU club team and she's always wanted to go there.
3. Darby Kern (maybe Hux will add her to the list now that she's on the roster), both parents are alums and brother goes there now. This is very, very common at Penn State. A lot of legacies. She was only considering other schools until PSU announced ice hockey.
4. Stephanie Walkom is from Pittsburgh and didn't want to go very far from home. While she has no family connection to PSU (both parents are from Ontario), and Penn State was high on her list due to proximity to home.
5. Tess Weaver is also a Pengiuns Elite player and she went to Penn State knowing that one year was club, hoping to make the d1 team and by all accounts she had a good year and earned her spot.
As someone else stated, it was a little surprising Katie Vaughan wasn't on the roster. She was recruited by several other d1 schools but wanted to goto Penn State (close to home and they are very well known in her major).
6. Due to proximity the coaches at PSU were able to watch the Pens Elite play quite a bit. Again, same as New England girls get exposed to Boston, HE schools more, etc. I suspect at will continue into the future. Obviously everyone knows some top girls out there who wouldn't have considered a start-up program, so that may have opened some spots for these girls. But, Josh has done a decent job, including some transfers, all this considered.
Also, the Pitt Pens Elite program, girls hockey in general is very "young" in Pittsburgh. They've only had 3 graduating classes of girls from u19. And they have shown they have developed into a very competitive program. This class has 7 girls playing d1 next year -- Walkom, Holdcroft, Kern, Brown, Lesperance, Vesci and Bell. I would say that level of advancement per year ranks up with top pwhl teams, Assabet, Little Caesars, etc. so, I think there will be more Penn State players in the future.
