UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – Aided by redshirt senior forward Kaitlyn MacBean’s single-season career-high tying 10th goal of the 2024 campaign, the Penn State women’s soccer program scrapped for a solid 1-0 win over the Northwestern Wildcats Thursday night on Jeffrey Field.
One of the most dominant scoring threats across all of NCAA Division I women’s soccer, the Excelsior, Minnesota, native MacBean battled for her 10th goal of the year to match the best goal-scoring season of her career to date. The veteran attacking presence entered Thursday night’s battle with the Wildcats at the top of the Big Ten Conference and tied for third nationally in goal production, with her ascent into double digits making her the third student-athlete in the nation to reach the 10-goal threshold this year. The Nittany Lion striker also continued her climb on the national match-winning goal leaderboard, netting her fourth match-winner of 2024 with her second-half score.
Another solid night on both ends of the pitch for the Nittany Lions warranted the program’s eighth win of the year, bringing the Penn State record up to 8-1-1 with an unblemished 2-0-0 start to Big Ten Conference play. The Blue & White have now held their first two opponents of conference play without a score for the second time in the last three years, with the 2024 squad joining a pair of conference-opening shutouts in the 2022 season. PSU stands on six points in the Big Ten table through its inaugural pair of B1G contests, starting league play with a pair of wins for the second year in a row.
In defeat, Northwestern drops to 5-4-1 overall and 0-2-0 to start the Big Ten ledger, with the Wildcats still in search of their first goal in conference competition. In an all-time series dating back to Penn State’s first year of varsity competition, the Blue & White improved to 29-5-1 against the Wildcats following the 35th meeting of the two programs. Penn State is unbeaten against NU through each of the last three contests dating to a B1G Tournament semifinal fixture in 2022, simultaneously rising to 4-1-1 through the last six meetings overall.
Penn State was impressive in practically every offensive statistic Thursday, doubling the Wildcats in both total shot attempts and shots on goal. The Nittany Lions racked up a dominant 14-7 differential on the shot chart aided by an 8-2 margin in shots during the second half. PSU additionally placed four shots on goal to Northwestern’s two, with both on-target efforts from the Wildcats coming in the opening 45 minutes. The Nittany Lions won the corner kick competition for the sixth time this season, outpacing NU by a 5-3 margin in the statistic to see Penn State rise to 5-0-1 when leading the corner battle in 2024. Northwestern received the only caution of the night on an egregious jersey pull late in the second half, with sophomore defender Maddie Finnerty going into the referee’s scorebook.
In the attack, senior midfielder Jordan Fusco was other-worldly on the dribble and in the passing game, connecting with MacBean for the sixth time this year. The Olmsted Township, Ohio, native entered Thursday night as the Big Ten’s best statistical passer, improving on her already-impressive assist total with her sixth helper of the season. Fusco surpassed her single-season career high in assists Thursday night, reaching rarified air after outperforming her freshman season total of five assists at the University of Tennessee. A trio of field position players saw 90 minutes of work for the Nittany Lions in the win, with redshirt sophomore midfielder Molly Martin, redshirt sophomore defender Kayleigh Herr and senior defender Mieke Schiemann going full-time for PSU.
Between the pipes, redshirt junior goalkeeper Amanda Poorbaugh returned to shutout form in her 90 minutes of work. The Westerville, Ohio, native shot-stopper delivered a pair of critical first half saves that kept the score level and the momentum firmly in Penn State’s favor. Poorbaugh notched her fifth solo shutout of the campaign as well as her fourth clean sheet in the last five matches following Thursday’s result. For Northwestern, former B1G Goalkeeper of the Week Reiley Fitzpatrick corralled a trio of Nittany Lion shots on goal, letting the match-winner go by from MacBean in her 90 minutes of effort.
In the 35th fixture featuring Penn State and Northwestern, both squads took the pitch and engaged in a five-minute feeling-out process that saw neither team attempt a shot until MacBean’s inaugural effort of the evening came in the sixth. From there, the Blue & White engaged in a corner kick barrage that saw the Nittany Lions register all but one of their corner kicks in an eight-minute span, highlighted by a two-minute flurry of corners that ended in the 14th. Both squads attempted runs into the box, with the Nittany Lions working for six shot attempts against Northwestern’s five, but both sides returned to the dressing room deadlocked with zeroes on the board.
After a halftime chat, both squads emerged with revised looks tactically, but the Blue & White were ultimately better suited to capitalize on the halftime adjustments, finding the back of the net for the only score of the night in the 49th. Graduate defender Ginger Fontenot sparked a brilliant Nittany Lion chance from the center of PSU’s back line, playing the ball forward centrally to Fusco around the midfield line. Fusco took a touch and spun toward the far side of the field to elude a Wildcat defender, ultimately playing the ball forward once again to a perfectly timed MacBean run. The Nittany Lions’ striker blitzed through the trio of Wildcats back to defend, drew Fitzpatrick off her line and used a simple right-footed finish to crack double figures in the goal-scoring column in her redshirt senior season.
Both squads settled down following the Nittany Lion tally, but a stingy Nittany Lion defense was able to hold the Wildcats to a meager two shot attempts in the final 45 minutes of work. Offensively, the Nittany Lions were far more aggressive in the second half, with PSU notching a pair of shots on goal following MacBean’s match-winner, simultaneously holding the Wildcats without a single opportunity on net in the second half. Penn State nearly booked an insurance score in the 79th minute of play, with graduate midfielder Natalie Wilson robbed of her first goal in 2024 courtesy of the offsides flag. With Wilson’s goal wiped off the board, the Nittany Lions battened down the hatches over the final 11 minutes and finished the night with a solid 1-0 victory over the Wildcats.
SCORING SUMMARY
49’ – Fontenot sparked a brilliant Nittany Lion chance from the center of PSU’s back line, playing the ball forward centrally to Fusco around the midfield line. Fusco took a touch and spun toward the far side of the field to elude a Wildcat defender, ultimately playing the ball forward once again to a perfectly timed MacBean run. The Nittany Lions’ striker blitzed through the trio of Wildcats back to defend, drew Fitzpatrick off her line and used a simple right-footed finish to crack double figures in the goal-scoring column in her redshirt senior season. PSU 1, NU 0
UP NEXT
No. 9 Penn State women's soccer remains at home to close out its four-match homestand this Sunday, September 22, as the Nittany Lions welcome the fifth-ranked and defending B1G regular season co-champion Michigan State Spartans to Jeffrey Field for a 2 p.m. (ET) kickoff. The match will air live to a national television audience via the Big Ten Network, with streaming available to authenticated subscribers via the FOX Sports App.
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