Scarlet Sunrise: Ohio State women's ice hockey advances to National Championship, Jesse Mendez to wrestle for national title

COLUMBUS – The Ohio State women’s ice hockey team will play for another National Championship after beating Cornell, 4-2, on Friday in the Frozen Four.

Forward Joy Dunne set the tone for the Buckeyes. Dunne had two goals and one assist in the win. Fellow forward Makenna Webster finished with one goal and two assists. Defenseman Brooke Disher was the only other Ohio State skater to score a goal.

As for the rest of the scoring, forwards Jenna Buglioni, Jocelyn Amos and Sloane Matthews along with defenseman Mira Jungåker all tallied an assistant in the Buckeyes win over the Big Red.

Goalie Amanda Thiele posted a .931 save percentage while stopping 27 of 29 shots from Cornell.

The Buckeyes will face top-seeded Wisconsin as they look to win back-to-back national titles. Ohio State is 1-2-1 against the Badgers this season.

Jesse Mendez advances to NCAA Finals

The 2025 NCAA Wrestling Tournament continued on Friday and for the second straight year, Ohio State standout Jesse Mendez advanced to the finals at 141 pounds.

Mendez started the day with a 17-5 win over sixth-seeded Vance Vombaur of Minnesota in the quarterfinals. The win set up a rematch between Mendez and Beau Bartlett of Penn State, who he beat in the NCAA finals last season. He had been struggling with the Nittany Lion this season, however. Bartlett beat Mendez in their dual matchup then again in the 3rd place match at the Big Ten Championship.

But Mendez slipped the script on Friday night. Mendez and Bartlett traded escapes in regulation to make it 1-1 heading into overtime. Neither wrestlers scored during the sudden victory period sending the match to tiebreakers. Mendez started from bottom in the first tiebreaker and earned a late escape point with three seconds left to take a 2-1 lead. Bartlett was down in the second tiebreaker and did not earn an escape to send Mendez to the finals. Mendez will face No. 1 seed Brock Hardy of Nebraska in the national championship on Saturday night.

ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED? 🤯

Jesse Mendez beats Beau Bartlett in tiebreakers 🌰 pic.twitter.com/QJ7S1Ex5xd

— Lettermen Row (@LettermenRow) March 22, 2025

The only other Ohio State wrestler to earn All-American status was Dylan D’Emilio at 149 pounds. D’Emilio beat Ethan Stiles of Oregon State in the quarterfinals, 7-3 but feel to top-seeded Caleb Henson of Virginia Tech in the semifinals, 6-2. D’Emilio will wrestle in the consolation bracket on Saturday with a chance to finish as high as third.

Nic Bouzakis (133 pounds), Brandon Cannon (157 pounds), Seth Shumate (197 pounds) and Nick Feldman (Heavyweight) all fell one match short of placement after losing in the blood round.

Counting down

Ohio State vs. Texas: 161 days away
Buckeyes vs. Michigan: 252 days away

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