ROSEMONT, Ill. – Following her first career hat trick, as well as a week of performances that saw her score all five Nittany Lion goals in a two-match span, Penn State women’s soccer redshirt senior forward Kaitlyn MacBean was named both the TopDrawerSoccer National Player of the Week and Big Ten Offensive Player of the week following announcements from both organizations Tuesday.
Through her first five matches of the 2024 campaign, MacBean has broken out as a star on the national stage. The Excelsior, Minnesota, native leads NCAA Division I in multiple statistical categories, including total goals with eight on the year, total points with 16, goals per match with 1.60, and match-winning goals with three. MacBean leads the Big Ten Conference in five categories, including each of the previous four in addition to a conference-high 2.80 shots on goal per match. Her individual dominance has coincided with Penn State’s electrifying resurgence on the offensive end of the pitch, with the Nittany Lions boasting the best statistical offense in B1G women’s soccer, as well as a top 20 unit nationally.
MacBean continued to etch her name in the Nittany Lion history books following the Blue & White’s 3-1 victory over border rival West Virginia on Thursday, August 29, scoring the 25th hat trick in Penn State program history. Her offensive outburst against the Mountaineers marked the first hat trick at Penn State since Payton Linnehan dropped a trio of goals against Central Connecticut State in the first round of the 2023 NCAA Tournament a year ago. MacBean’s three-goal outing surpassed her previous career-high mark in single-match scoring, which included a brace in the 2023 NCAA Tournament Round of 16 matchup against Saint Louis.
In Sunday’s regular season rematch with the Billikens, MacBean logged her seventh and eighth goals of the year respectively, closing the book on her five-goal week following PSU’s result in the Gateway City. MacBean needs just two more goals to match and three to surpass the best statistical season of her Nittany Lion journey, booking eight scores through five matches compared to 10 goals across 23 appearances in 2023.
With her scores against the Billikens on Sunday, MacBean ensured that she would take sole ownership of the No. 3 spot in the Nittany Lion record book for consecutive matches with a goal, finding the back of the net in each of her last eight appearances. MacBean is just the second woman in Penn State history to record a streak of eight or more consecutive matches with a goal, trailing Nittany Lion legend and NCAA Division I record holder Tiffany Weimer, who logged a 13-match streak in 2004 followed by a 17-match run in 2005.
MacBean picked up her second TopDrawerSoccer National Player of the Week honor on Tuesday afternoon, with this week’s recognition joining a prior appearance as the nation’s top student-athlete on November 21, 2023. She paired her individual accolade with a placement on the TDS National Team of the Week, making her third appearance on the National Team of the Week all-time joining prior recognitions on August 29 and November 21 of last year. MacBean is the second Nittany Lion to land TopDrawerSoccer National Team of the Week accolades in 2024, joining senior midfielder Jordan Fusco. Additionally, MacBean picked up her first career individual distinction from the Big Ten Conference office, becoming the first PSU student-athlete to be named a B1G Player of the Week in the 2024 campaign.
Led by the national scoring leader in MacBean, No. 12 Penn State women’s soccer returns to action this week beginning with a Thursday, September 5 test against the Princeton Tigers on the road from Myslik Field at Roberts Stadium in Princeton, New Jersey. The match will stream live to a worldwide audience of authenticated subscribers via ESPN+ and the ESPN app. Penn State will then close out its three-match road trip on Sunday, September 8, with a contest scheduled against the No. 23 Georgetown Hoyas in Washington D.C., beginning at 1 p.m. (ET) with streaming available via FloFC.
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