Nittany Lions Open 2025 Postseason in B1G Tournament First Round Against Iowa
Eleventh-seeded PSU challenges sixth-seeded Iowa in tournament-opening game Wednesday on BTN
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – Eleventh-seeded Penn State softball kicks off its fourth consecutive Big Ten Conference Tournament run and 18th appearance in the league’s postseason all-time on Wednesday, May 7, with the team’s opening-round matchup against the sixth-seeded Iowa Hawkeyes from Bittinger Stadium on the campus of Purdue University.
The Nittany Lions opening round matchup against the Hawkeyes is scheduled for an 11 a.m. (ET) start on Wednesday, with the contest set to air live before a national television audience via the Big Ten Network and FOX Sports App with Kylen Mills and Sydney Supple calling the action.
Follow the Action
All 11 games of the 2025 Big Ten Conference Softball Tournament will air live to a national television audience via the Big Ten Network and FOX Sports App on connected devices. For Penn State’s opening round matchup with Iowa, Kylen Mills and Sydney Supple will be on the call from the Bittinger Stadium press box in West Lafayette. Links to view Penn State’s conference tournament opener are available via the Penn State Softball schedule webpage at GoPSUsports.com. Live stat links provided by StatBroadcast, Purdue University and the Big Ten Conference are available for all prospective B1G Tournament games on the Penn State softball schedule webpage or via the Big Ten Tournament Central webpage at BigTen.org.
QUICK HITS
Penn State ensured the program’s fourth consecutive trip to the league’s tournament after publishing a 10-12 record in conference play over the course of the 22-game B1G slate. The program’s fourth consecutive trip to the B1G Tournament matches the second-longest Big Ten postseason streak in program history, with the only longer conference tournament streak coming in five-straight bids from 2013 to 2017. PSU enters the conference postseason following a weekend series against the Washington Huskies that featured the first win over UW by a Nittany Lion team since the inaugural meeting of the two squads in 2002. Penn State’s win in the middle of the weekend series pushed the team to 10 conference wins. The Nittany Lions have now booked four-straight B1G seasons with at least 10 conference victories, the longest such stretch since the Blue & White moved to the B1G in 1992.
MEET THE FIELD
Following the expansion of the Big Ten Conference in the 2024 offseason to 17 softball programs, the league’s postseason tournament features the 12 highest-placing finishers in the league table following the 2025 regular season. The top four seeds in the B1G Tournament earned first-round byes directly into the quarterfinals, with conference newcomers Oregon and UCLA booking the top two seeds while league stalwarts Nebraska and Ohio State rounded out the top four. The Ducks won the Big Ten regular season title outright with a 19-3 league ledger this season, highlighted by a 2-1 series victory over west-coast foe UCLA.
Ohio State booked one of the most dominant offensive seasons in league history, becoming one of two programs to crack 100 home runs this season, leading the nation with a striking 134 count in the statistic. In their first season in the Big Ten, Washington finished as the league’s seventh-place finisher, guaranteeing all three B1G newcomers a place in the 12-team conference tournament field. The conference’s No. 5 through 12 seeds round out the four first round games on Wednesday, with 11th-seeded PSU opening against sixth-seeded Iowa. Washington battles 10th-seeded Indiana in the second game of the tournament, while eighth-seeded Michigan and ninth-seeded Wisconsin face off in game three. Tournament hosts and 12th-seeded Purdue challenge fifth-seeded Northwestern in Wednesday’s nightcap from West Lafayette.
B1G HISTORY
The Nittany Lions prepare for their 18th appearance in the Big Ten Tournament all-time and their fourth consecutive. PSU owns a 15-21 overall record in the event since the program’s first appearance in the 1999 campaign, good enough for a .417 winning percentage. Penn State booked its best finish at the Big Ten Conference softball Tournament in 2000, 2002 and 2016, reaching the semifinal round of the event. The 2016 Nittany Lions hosted the B1G Tournament for the first time in school history and picked up the No. 4 overall seed in the tournament, the team’s highest seed since the league adopted a single-elimination format ahead of the 2004 postseason. PSU registered a thrilling 8-7 win over fifth-seeded Nebraska before falling by a 6-1 margin against top-seeded Michigan at Nittany Lion Softball Park and Beard Field. Under the direction of head coach Clarisa Crowell, the Blue & White own a 2-3 conference postseason record with back-to-back first round victories and quarterfinal appearance in the league tournament in 2022 and 2023 before booking a first-round performance a year ago with an extra-inning defeat to Maryland.
B1G Tournament First Round
24-26 | 10-12 B1G
35-17 | 15-7 B1G
Introducing Iowa
ABOUT THE HAWKEYES
Under the leadership of acting head coach Karl Gollan, the Iowa Hawkeyes enter the 2025 Big Ten Conference Softball Tournament boasting a 35-17 overall record paired with a 15-7 finish in league action. Iowa is fresh off a season-ending sweep of the Rutgers Scarlet Knights at home in Iowa City last weekend. The Hawkeyes rebounded spectacularly from a challenging 2024 slate, with the squad boasting a number of marquee wins highlighted by a 7-4 upset of then-No. 5 UCLA at home in Iowa City. In total, Iowa recorded five B1G series wins, a series split against UCLA and series defeats at the hands of Wisconsin and Nebraska.
At the plate, Iowa is headlined by a trio of .300-plus hitters with Jena Young spearheading the charge with a .366 average that includes 18 extra-base knocks on the season. Soo-Jin Berry is the Hawkeye leader in home runs with nine, standing atop the team with 11 doubles while owning a team-best 32 RBI. Hannah Lindsay rounds out the trio of Hawkeyes above .300 with a .306 mark in the batter’s box this year. Iowa’s success in 2025 is largely attributed to the accomplishments of Jalen Adams in the circle, who leads the Hawkeyes with a 2.02 earned run average coupled with an eye-popping 25-5 individual record in 194.1 innings. Talia Tretton has seen the lion’s share of Iowa’s remaining frames, tossing 119.2 with a 3.39 ERA.
STORY OF THE SERIES
Penn State and Iowa renew a series that dates to the 1992 campaign this week in West Lafayette, with the teams set to square away in the 71st all-time meetings on Wednesday morning. Iowa maintains a 49-21 edge in the series, which began with a Hawkeye sweep of the Blue & White in University Park just over 33 years ago. The Hawkeyes have won each of the last three series, with those coming in the 2021, 2023 and 2025 seasons in Leesburg, Florida, Happy Valley and Iowa City, respectively. The neutral-site series on March 11 and 12, 2021 featured a pair of narrow extra-inning victories for Iowa in what finished as a three-game series sweep.
This season’s series in Iowa City finished as a sweep for the host-Hawkeyes, with Iowa taking all three games by 2-1, 10-2, and 3-1 margins, respectively. The first two games of the series saw the Blue & White tally first, but Iowa was able to battle back in both of those contests and ultimately come away with the sweep. Wednesday morning’s meeting between Iowa and Penn State will mark the fourth B1G Tournament fixture between the two teams all-time. PSU leads the postseason series by a 2-1 margin, with all three meetings coming between 1999 and 2005.
Follow the Nittany Lions
Visit GoPSUsports.com for more information on Penn State softball. Fans can keep up to date with the Nittany Lion softball team on Facebook at /pennstatesoftball as well as Instagram and X @PennStateSB.