Ohio State women’s hockey makes program history with 5 All-WCHA Team honors

“For the first time in program history five different All-WCHA Team honors have been bestowed upon Buckeyes in the same season. Both the 2006-07 and 2007-08 teams that had four honorees each held the previous record for All-WCHA Team distinctions.”

-Ohio State Buckeyes

Ohio State’s men’s and women’s hockey teams have surpassed expectations this season, and just as the women for Team USA earned some gold medals earlier this week, the Buckeyes have earned some pretty big honors heading into the postseason. Five honorees are among the All-Western Collegiate Hockey Association teams of the year.

For the first time since 2008, Ohio State had not one, but two players who earned All-WCHA First Team honors — the first time any Buckeye has been named First Team since 2012. The two distinguished players are Emma Maltais and Jincy Dunne. Maltais is No. 1 in the conference in points (38) and No. 2 in the league in assists (24). Dunne is among the best defenseman in the league, claiming 23 points — 21 points coming from assists, good for No. 3 in the conference.

Kassidy Sauvé was named to the All-WCHA Second Team for the second year in a row. This is just another in a long list of awards for Sauvé this season, having already claimed five WCHA Defensive Player of the Week wins, two NCAA No. 1 Star of the Week wins, a WCHA Goaltender of the Month win, and the all-time program records for both shutouts and saves. She doesn’t really need her stats to back-up the fact that she’s one of the best goal tenders in the country, but they do: Sauvé leads the WCHA (and is No. 3 nationally) with 849 saves.

Rounding out the honors, with All-WCHA Third Team distinctions is Tatum Skaggs, who leads the conference with 21 goals and 35 points

“These girls are very deserving of these distinctions,” OSU Head Coach Nadine Muzerall said. “They have proven that they are elite and can compete with the best in the nation. We’re lucky to have them here in the Scarlet and Gray.”

The women’s first postseason matchup is Friday evening, where they’ll play host to Minnesota State in a best of three series.

“It’s big to start out the weekend with a win,” head coach Greg Beals said. “We had a huge first inning offensively and got some help. They struggled with the strike zone early in the ball game, but we got some big hits also to extend that inning and stretch it out.”

-via Ohio State Buckeyes

Ohio State baseball opened their 2018 season last weekend 3-1, and followed it up with a win in their second tournament of the year on Thursday. In the first game of the Big Ten/Pac-12 Challenge, the Buckeyes faced a winless Utah team, and ran away with the win, 7-2. The entire weekend wont be a walk in the park though, with their other Pac-12 opponent being No. 2 Oregon State. Heading into this weekend’s tournament, the Beavers were 4-0.

The bats were hot on Thursday, with Conner Pohl going 3-for-4 and Kobie Foppe 2-for-5, each claiming a run scored and an RBI. Dominic Canzone finished the night with 2 RBIs, one run scored and a walk, and Brady Cherry went 1-for-3, snagging a run scored, along with two walks. Lastly, Tyler Cowles and Noah McGowan each had a hit, run scored and RBI. All seven of the runs scored came in the bottom of the first, among just five hits. Coach Beals had hoped his team would start off strong, but was somewhat disappointed by their lack of points throughout the rest of the game.

“I’m a little disappointed we didn’t add to it later in the game, but our pitching staff did a great job. We got a solid 5.1 out of Connor Curlis and a big double play out of Kyle Michalik and it’s great to see Thomas Waning up to strong form to finish out the ball game.”

• Ohio State vs. Utah | Saturday, Feb. 24 at 6 p.m. ET | Live Stats | Twitter Updates
• Ohio State vs. No. 2 Oregon State | Sunday, Feb. 25 at 11 a.m. | Live Stats | Twitter Updates | Oregon State Audio

“Urban has always had for some reason that rumor that he wasn’t going to coach long,” Smith said. “I don’t understand that. … But once we got south of that four years, it’s typical.”

-Austin Ward, Land of 10

It’s not all that often that a team and coach announce a contract extension before terms are even discussed, but Urban Meyer took time during his press conference on National Signing Day to say that a new, multi-year deal was in the pipeline. Ohio State fans have been wondering how long Meyer would stick around in Columbus, especially given the fact he’s already stepped away from the game once, but it wasn’t just assurance for fans that Meyer and Ohio State AD Gene Smith were after.

Negative recruiting tactics have always been around, and over the past few years, Meyer’s commitment longterm to the Buckeyes has been used to get in prospects’ heads. Deciding which college to play for is one of the biggest decisions these young men will make, and familiarity and relationships with the coaching staff are among the top deciding factors. A new deal for Meyer will silence outsiders, and will give the next set of recruits confidence that they’ll be playing in an Urban Meyer-regime if they choose Ohio State for their collegiate ball.

The deal hasn’t been signed, and details haven’t been released, but it seems like just a matter of time before Buckeye Nation is safely in the hands of Urban Meyer for the foreseeable future -- which will be good for the fans and the future of the program.

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