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UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – The Mercyhurst University women's hockey team picked up their seventh consecutive win after a 4-1 battle against Penn State University on Sunday afternoon.

The win by the Mercyhurst Lakers captured their 13th consecutive College Hockey America regular season title. The Lakers have reigned as regular season champions since joining Division I back during the 2000-01 season with the Great Lakes Women's Hockey Association to total 14 regular season titles between the two conferences. With the title, the Lakers will host the College Hockey America Championships on March 7-8, 2014 at the Mercyhurst Ice Center.

The Lakers improved to 21-7-3 on the season and are now 14-3-1 in the conference to extend their first place lead by five points. Penn State fell to 4-25-3 overall this season and 1-16-1 in the CHA.

For the first time this season, Penn State held the Lakers to a scoreless first period after Mercyhurst attempted 20 shots on net within the first 20:00 minutes of play. After Penn State ended junior Molly Byrne's point streak last night, the defenseman led the team with nine shots on net. The Lakers held the Nittany Lions to just three shots on net, all coming from the second half of the opening period.

For the first time in the all-time series, Penn State takes the lead 1-0 after a second period goal by the Nittany Lions. Hannah Hoenshell took the puck from the neutral zone and carried it to the Lakers defensive end. Hoenshell beats Makela to her glove side at the 4:52 mark into the middle period on an even strength goal.

Freshman Paige Horton evens the score at one on a delayed penalty at the 8:27 mark of the second period to mark her second of the season. The Lakers drew a penalty while in their offensive end to pull goaltender Amanda Makela with just enough time for senior Christine Bestland to feed the puck to Horton at the point. Horton took a one timer to beat Penn State goaltender Nicole Paniccia to the top left corner of the net.

Byrne's efforts finally paid off at the 5:35 mark into the third period on the Lakers first successful power-play of the contest. Sophomore Jenna Dingeldein battled for the puck which sophomore Emily Janiga picked up. Jangia then passed the puck again to the point where Byrne then took a shot past Paniccia to give her team the 2-1 advantage.

Dingeldein extended the score 3-1 after scoring her 13th goal of the season at the 9:22 mark of the third period. Janiga added the assist to mark her second point of the game, while sophomore J'nai Mahadeo picked up her only assist of the game.

With the effort of the Lakers special teams they killed of back to back penalties against the Nittany Lions with five minutes left in regulation. Penn State pulled Pianccia with a minute left in regulation but Bestland extended the lead to 4-1 with an empty net goal after just 11 seconds of the Penn State extra attacker. The goal marked the Bestland's 17th of the season.

All told, Mercyhurst outshot the Nittany Lions 52 to 19 throughout the entire contest including a game-high 20 shots in the first period. Senior Christie Cicero and Byrne led the team with nine shots throughout the contest.

Goaltender Amanda Makela improved to 19-6-3 on the season after making 18 saves including ten in the third period. Penn State's netminder Paniccia made 48 saves and fell to 1-15-2 on the season.

The Lakers host their final regular season home series at the Mercyhurst Ice Center on Friday, February 21 at 3:00 p.m. against Lindenwood. The series will conclude on Saturday, February 22 at 2:00 p.m.