UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Four Penn State women's ice hockey players are set to begin play at the 2026 Milano-Cortina Winter Olympic Games this week.
Three current players — Tessa Janecke (United States), Nicole Hall (Sweden) and Matilde Fantin (Italy) — and one alum, Jessica Adolfsson (Sweden), will all begin preliminary round play on Feb. 5.
Tessa Janecke
Tessa Janecke is a senior forward and is the first player in Penn State women's ice hockey history to be named to the U.S. Olympic women's ice hockey team. Janecke enters the Olympics with significant international experience under her belt, having played 38 games with the U.S. women's senior national team between the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) World Championships and the Rivalry Series versus Canada. In those games, Janecke has 13 goals and 15 assists for 28 points.
The Orangeville, Illinois, native has three medals at the IIHF World Championships (two gold and one silver). In the 2025 gold medal game, Janecke scored the game-winning goal in overtime to lift the U.S. over Canada.
At Penn State, she has the most career points at 180 in 131 games played. Her 74 goals are tied for the most in program history and her 106 assists are also a program record.
Her honors include being named both the American Hockey Coaches Association (AHCA) and USCHO.com (U.S. College Hockey Online) National Rookie of the Year, back-to-back AHCA/CCM All-American honors, Atlantic Hockey America (AHA) Player of the Year in 2023-24 and 2024-25, and numerous Forward of the Month and Forward of the Week awards both nationally and within the AHA and College Hockey America (CHA).
Nicole Hall
Sophomore forward Nicole Hall has played 15 games with the Swedish senior national team and served as captain of Sweden's U18 team for the World Championships in 2021-22. In her U18 career with Sweden, Hall played in 38 games, totaling 17 points.
In her current season at Penn State, Hall has surpassed her numbers from her rookie season, posting 14 points on eight goals and six assists. She is now fifth on the Nittany Lions in goals and sixth in plus/minus at +19.
Matilde Fantin
Freshman forward Matilde Fantin will rejoin host country Italy with over 10 games of senior national team experience. In her last international competition at the 2025 IIHF Division 1 B Women's World Championship, she led the entire tournament in points with 10 on five goals and five assists. Her efforts propelled Italy to an unbeaten finish in the event while earning the team promotion to the Division 1 A in 2026.
The Como, Italy, native has made an immediate impact for the Nittany Lions in her short time at the University. She leads all Penn State freshmen in goals with eight, as well as contributing 10 assists for 18 points in 21 games played. Her 64.5% face-off win percentage is second in AHA behind teammate Tessa Janecke.
In her short time in college hockey, Fantin has won a number of awards, including AHA Freshman of the Month of September/October, Rookie of the Week Awards on Oct. 28, and Forward of the Week Award on Oct. 14.
Jessica Adolfsson
A 2021 Penn State graduate, Jessica Adolfsson will rejoin Sweden with over 50 games played internationally with the Swedish senior national team. Adolfsson played in all five games for Sweden in the 2022 Beijing Olympics, tallying one point from the blue line.
Since graduating from Penn State, Adolfsson has played professionally in the Swedish Women's Hockey League (SDHL) in her home country of Sweden while also playing one game with the Ottawa Charge last season in the Professional Women's Hockey League. She's appeared in 147 games in th SDHL, notching 75 points. As a Nittany Lion, she scored 26 points, which is seventh most by a defender in program history.
Feb. 5 game times
The women's ice hockey tournament begins on Feb. 5 with each of the Penn Staters' teams in action that day:
- Hall and Adolfsson's Sweden will face off against Germany at 6:10 a.m. ET
- Fantin's Italy will play France at 8:40 a.m. ET
- Janecke and Team USA will face Czechia at 10:40 a.m. ET