UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – The Penn State women's soccer program heads to Piscataway, New Jersey to take on Rutgers in the first game of the 2021 spring season.
Game Information
Date – February 19, 2021
Time – 12 p.m. ET
Location - Iron Peak Sports & Events - Hillsborough, NJ
Live Stats
Friday's match was originally schedule for Saturday, February 20 but was moved to Friday at 12 p.m. ET. in 2019, Rutgers topped Penn State 3-2 in double overtime. Kerry Abello netted both goals for the Nittany Lions.
Big Ten Favorites
Penn State was selected as the preseason choice to win the 2020-21 Big Ten Conference announced by the league on Wednesday. As voted on by the conference coaches, Penn State has been selected preseason favorite to win the conference each year since 2003.
The Nittany Lions are the reigning Big Ten Tournament champions and have captured 19 Big Ten regular season crowns. Last year's Big Ten Tournament title was the eighth in program history and fourth under head coach Erica Dambach. Dambach has also captured 10 Big Ten regular season championships while leading the Nittany Lions.
Last season, the Nittany Lions advanced to the Sweet 16 for the 16th time in program history and fifth in the last six seasons.
The Nittany Lions three senior captains, Kerry Abello, Sam Coffey and Frankie Tagliaferri were each named to the 2020-21 Players to Watch List.
Both Abello and Coffey were recently selected in the 2021 NWSL draft. Coffey was selected 12th overall by the Portland Thorns and Abello, 24th overall by the Orlando Pride. Tagliaferri is a three time All-Big Ten honoree and was named an All-North Region performer in 2018.
MAC Hermann Watch List
Coffey and sophomore Ally Schlegel were named to the 2020-21 MAC Hermann Watch List announced by the United Soccer Coaches.
The MAC Hermann Trophy is awarded annually since 1967, and honors the United Soccer Coaches National Players of the Year in NCAA Division I men's and women's soccer based on voting conducted by NCAA Division I coaches.
Coffey returns to the MAC Hermann watch list as she was included on the 2019 watch list to begin the season. Coffey was a semifinalist for the award in 2018 as a member of Boston College.
Coffey earned United Soccer Coaches Scholar All-America honors in 2019 and earned first team All-North Region and first team All-Big Ten honors. She was also named to the TopDrawerSoccer Best XI second team.
Coffey's 11 goals and 10 assists totaled 32 points, good for second in the Big Ten. Coffey's 34 career assists was tied for fourth on the NCAA active career leaders prior to the 2020-21 season.
The reigning Big Ten Freshman of the Year, Schlegel led the conference in points in her first season of competition with 33 in 2019. Schlegel tied for the league lead with 13 goals and was tied for sixth with seven assists.
Schlegel was tabbed second team All-North Region and named to the TopDrawerSoccer Best XI second team. She also earned first team All-Big Ten honors and was named to the Big Ten All-Freshman team. Schlegel's 13 goals last season were the most for a Nittany Lion since 2015 when Megan Schafer netted 13 goals in the Nittany Lions' run to the National Championship.
In program history, two Nittany Lions have won the MAC Hermann Trophy: Christie Welsh was the program's inaugural winner in 2001 and Raquel Rodriguez was the program's most recent winner in 2015. The most recent semifinalist for the award was Kaleigh Riehl in 2018. In total, the Nittany Lions have had 18 semifinalists, finalists or winners of the MAC Hermann award.