Ohio State Women’s Ice Hockey head coach, Nadine Muzerall, celebrates with players on March 24 at the 2024 NCAA Championship at the Whittemore Center in Durham, New Hampshire. Photo Credit: Rick Wilson Photography
Following a season that culminated in a win against Wisconsin in the national championship, Ohio State extended women’s ice hockey coach Nadine Muzerall to a five-year deal that pushes her contract through the 2028-29 season, the Ohio State athletic department announced.
The department said over the course of Muzerall’s eight-year tenure at Ohio State, the former Minnesota assistant coach turned a once-struggling program into one of the best in the country. Before Muzerall’s arrival, the Buckeye women’s hockey program had never won 20 games in a season nor a conference title, the department stated.
Muzerall made an instant impact at Ohio State, achieving over 20 wins and the program’s first Frozen Four appearance in just her second season with the team. She would go on to only have two seasons under that win total: her first year and the season that took place during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Since 2020, Muzerall has led the Buckeyes to four straight Frozen Four appearances (2020-2024), two straight Western Collegiate Hockey Association (WCHA) conference regular season championships (2023 and 2024) and two NCAA Division Ⅰ national championships in three years (2022 and 2024).
Muzerall has been named a WCHA Coach of the Year award winner five times, helping her players to nine All-American awards and guiding former Buckeye defenseman Sophie Jaques to be named the program’s first-ever Patty Kazmaier Memorial Award winner as the country’s best women’s college hockey player in 2023.
The Buckeyes have also seen great academic success since Muzerall took over the program. During the last four academic years, Ohio State has awarded the women’s hockey team the Varsity O Cup, which is awarded to the highest grade-point average among large roster teams at the university.
Overall, Muzerall has accumulated a whopping 195-73-19 record since taking over in 2016, making her “the winningest head coach in Ohio State history,” the Ohio State athletic department stated. With the program coming off a record-setting 35-win season, the Buckeyes will look to continue their tremendous success in the future.
