Penn State will play in its first women’s Frozen Four this weekend on home ice. But the hockey program’s rise didn’t happen overnight.

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. — If you look today, Penn State is a top-four women’s hockey team after registering its second straight 30-win season and defeating UConn, 3-0, on Saturday to advance to the program’s first Frozen Four.

Jeff Kampersal’s squad (33-5) has positioned itself as one of the sport’s newest blue bloods, with a chance to stamp that status on Friday at Pegula Ice Arena (7:30 p.m., ESPN+) against No. 2 seed Wisconsin (33-4-2), which has won four of the last six national titles.

But it wasn’t always this way.

» READ MORE: Penn State finally gets over the hump to reach its first women’s hockey Frozen Four: ‘We’re not done yet’

During Kampersal’s first two seasons, the Nittany Lions went winless in 16 contests against conference foes Mercyhurst and Syracuse and won just 23 of 72 games overall. It was a rude introduction to the amount of time, dedication, and persistence it would take to try to build Penn State into a national contender.

But Kampersal kept pushing. And after another sub-.500 campaign in 2019-20, the Nittany Lions went 16-3-2 during the COVID-shortened 2020-21 season — their first above-.500 campaign since 2014-15 and just the second such finish in program history.

Kampersal, 56, recalled a moment during that season when the Nittany Lions trailed early against Robert Morris, a team they had gone winless against in 14 tries since the start of the 2017-18 campaign.

But this time — this season — was different. Penn State scored three unanswered goals to top the Colonials before taking the next three meetings en route to a 4-0 season sweep. Kampersal’s squad went on to win 11 of its next 12 games in what became a program-defining year.

“Before [this senior class] got here, we couldn’t get over the hump,” Kampersal said. “There was one series against Robert Morris where we were on the precipice of winning, and we had to make a decision on whether we wanted to take that game. And that was the turning point of everything. … We haven’t looked back since.”

Since that victory over Robert Morris on Jan. 8, 2021, Penn State has gone 142-45-13 — a .710 winning percentage that more than doubled the team’s .350 winning percentage under Kampersal over his first 116 games in charge. Furthermore, the Nittany Lions nearly lost more games over Kampersal’s first three seasons (44) than they have in the ensuing six (46).

Kampersal has been at the forefront of the massive turnaround in “Hockey Valley.” But he hasn’t done it alone.

Patrick Kraft, Penn State’s athletic director, has allocated “a spectacular performance center and resources,” Kampersal says, to both the men’s and women’s hockey programs. And that excludes Pegula Ice Arena, which opened in 2013 after a $102 million donation from alumnus Terry Pegula and his wife, Kim, who own the Buffalo Bills and Sabres. The arena features state-of-the-art practice facilities, training equipment, locker rooms, and more, and helped announce Penn State’s lofty intentions on the ice.

“We have really good leadership from above. Pat [Kraft] is a very charismatic, infectious personality that wants to win, and he wants to provide all the athletes with what they need to be in a good mental and physical place to win games,” Kampersal said. “Pat wants to provide opportunities for these players to succeed. Whether it’s eating, travel, or an unbelievable facility, it means a lot that people care.”

The Nittany Lions hope their fan base echoes that passion on Friday when they face Wisconsin on home ice with a chance to advance to the national title game, which is slated for 4 p.m. Sunday.

No matter what happens this weekend, these are the final collegiate games for Penn State’s historic senior class — a group of six players who took a program from unranked to the Frozen Four.

Those seniors — Leah Stecker, Kendall Butze, Katelyn Roberts, Maddy Christian, Katie DeSa, and All-American and U.S. Olympic gold medalist Tessa Janecke — have a chance to do what no players in program history have done: bring a hockey national championship to Happy Valley. That dream isn’t a new one, though, as those seniors and Kampersal envisioned this moment in May 2022 when Pegula Arena was named the host of the 2026 Frozen Four.

“That’s been in the back of our heads since freshman year,” Butze, a defenseman, said.

“We appreciate one another so much because we’ve gone through this together,” added Christian, a forward who ranks third on the team with 19 goals and 34 points. “We have this class that is so connected and so strong. I think that’s what has driven our culture. And it’s all coming together now.”

» READ MORE: Next up for Penn State’s Olympic gold medal winner Tessa Janecke: The NCAA women’s hockey tournament

The Nittany Lions understand their toughest test lies ahead.

Wisconsin has outscored its opponents by 206-55 en route to the Frozen Four, with its only four losses split between No. 1 Ohio State and No. 4 Minnesota. The Badgers, who feature five Olympians, including four U.S. gold-medal winners led by Caroline Harvey and Laila Edwards, lead the nation in scoring offense (5.28 goals per game), power-play percentage (.347), and penalty-killing percentage (.903).

Friday will serve as a measuring stick game for the Nittany Lions, who believe that if they play their game in front of a raucous crowd, anything is possible, even against the record eight-time NCAA champions.

“We just need to make sure we keep our feet moving, make sure we’re physical,” Kampersal said. “We know that [Wisconsin] is a talented group, but we’ll be ready to go.”