UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – Penn State Intercollegiate Athletics sits sixth in the LEARFIELD Directors' Cup Division I standings following the Final Fall standings.
Penn State posted 309 points during the Fall championship season, led by field hockey's 83 points after reaching the NCAA Semifinals.
The Nittany Lions' 309 points are its most in a Fall season since 2018 (337). Penn State has ranked among the Top 10 following Fall championship season in 16 of the last 17 years the standings have been published (not published in Fall 2019 due to COVID-19).
Led by head coach Char Morett-Curtiss, the field hockey squad finished its season with a 17-4 record and a share of the Big Ten Championship. The Nittany Lions knocked off Louisville and Albany to advance to the NCAA Semifinals, falling against North Carolina. Senior Mackenzie Allessie, senior Brie Barraco, junior Sophia Gladieux and graduate student Anna Simon earned All-America honors.
The women's soccer team, led by head coach Erica Dambach, won their ninth Big Ten Tournament title before reaching the third round of the NCAA Tournament. The Nittany Lions picked up NCAA Tournament wins over Quinnipiac and West Virginia. Redshirt senior Ally Schlegel earned multiple All-America Accolades.
The Penn State football team, led by head coach James Franklin, finished the season with an 11-2 record, reaching 11 wins for the 19th time in program history. The Nittany Lions concluded the 2022 campaign with a 35-21 win over Utah in the Rose Bowl. Penn State was ranked No. 7 in the final Coaches Poll. Sophomore Olumuyiwa Fashanu, sophomore Kalen King and redshirt junior Joey Porter Jr. garnered All-America honors.
Women's Volleyball, led by head coach Katie Schumacher-Cawley, played in the NCAA Tournament for the 42nd consecutive season. Penn State finished the year with a 26-8 record and earned NCAA Tournament wins over UMBC and UCF.
Women's Cross Country, led by head coach John Gondak, earned 26 points in the Directors' Cup standings after finishing fifth at the NCAA Mid-Atlantic Regional. Faith DeMars paced the Nittany Lions at the regional.
North Carolina leads the overall standings with 382.5 points, followed by Stanford (330), BYU (314.5), Ohio State (313) and Syracuse (310.5).
Penn State is one of two Big Ten schools among the Top 10 and one of four Big Ten schools represented in the Top 25.
Updates to the standings will come on April 6 and April 20 to include winter sport championships. The rankings will also be updated on June 15 and the final standings will be announced in early July following the College World Series.
Under the leadership of Vice President for Intercollegiate Athletics Dr. Patrick Kraft, Penn State has one of the nation's most comprehensive and successful athletic programs, featuring 800 student-athletes across 31 varsity programs (16 men's, 15 women's). The Nittany Lions' 31 programs are tied for the fourth-highest number of sports sponsored by a Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) institution.
Penn State student-athletes have led the athletic department to 39 Big Ten championships and 10 NCAA National Championships since 2012. The Nittany Lions have finished in the top 15 of the LEARFIELD Directors' Cup 19 times in the last 28 years (the Directors' Cup was not awarded in 2019-20).
Complete standings and the scoring structure of the LEARFIELD Directors' Cup can be found on NACDA's website at www.directorscup.org.
Field Hockey