ROSEMONT, Ill. – The Penn State women’s soccer program landed a quartet of Big Ten Conference women’s soccer postseason accolades in the league office’s annual release, highlighted by PSU’s 31st-consecutive season with a First Team All-B1G choice following the Big Ten’s announcement Friday.
Redshirt senior forward Kaitlyn MacBean made history for PSU, landing First Team All-Big Ten accolades following a banner year as one of the most dangerous attacking players in the nation. MacBean was joined by a pair of Second Team All-Big Ten choices in senior midfielder Jordan Fusco and senior defender Mieke Schiemann, as well as Big Ten Sportsmanship Award honoree and graduate midfielder Devon Olive. Fusco has now garnered All-Conference honors from multiple power four conferences, with her Second Team All-B1G choice in 2024 joining a First Team All-Southeastern Conference recognition a year ago during her stint at the University of Tennessee.
MacBean, a native of Excelsior, Minnesota, has guaranteed her place at the top of the national conversation in terms of offensive production, with the veteran Nittany Lion striker ranking inside the top 10 nationally in terms of both total goals and match-winning goals. MacBean stands as the scoring leader on the Nittany Lions’ 31st varsity roster, accumulating 29 total points split between 14 goals and a lone assist earlier in the year. Her quintet of match-winning scores stand as the eighth-highest total in the nation and fourth-highest mark in the Big Ten Conference, with MacBean logging the match-sealing score in five matches including West Chester, West Virginia, Saint Louis, Northwestern and Maryland. She also leads the Blue & White in total shot attempts with 68, as well as shots on goal with 33.
Following her historic recognition as a First Team All-B1G choice from the conference office, MacBean secures the 82nd First Team recognition in program history and ensures that PSU continues its historic stretch of First Team accolades dating to the program’s inaugural season in 1994. MacBean also becomes the 41st woman in Nittany Lion annals to become a First Team choice, joining the most recent addition to PSU’s First Team club in 2023 graduate Cori Dyke. Penn State remains the only Big Ten Conference member institution to have at least one First Team All-B1G selection in every year of the league’s 31-year history sponsoring women’s soccer, further cementing PSU’s place as the most storied program in the conference’s history.
Fusco, a native of Olmsted Township, Ohio, bookends a stellar collegiate soccer career with her second All-Conference recognition from a power four league, as her 2024 Second Team All-B1G choice joins prior recognition from the Southeastern Conference as a First Team honoree a year ago during her time at Tennessee. Fusco has been a revelation offensively for the Blue & White, leading the roster in total assists with nine while ranking second in the Big Ten and 10th nationally in the category. Her 0.47 assists per match stand as the fourth-most in the league as well as the 25th-best mark in the nation.
Schiemann, one of the most consistent center backs in the nation over her quartet of seasons with the Nittany Lions, picks up her second Big Ten Conference postseason recognition following a Third Team All-B1G choice in the 2022 campaign that saw PSU pick up the Big Ten Tournament title as well as another NCAA Sweet 16 appearance. The Berlin, Germany, native has been an anchor for PSU all season long, playing and starting in 18 of PSU’s 19 regular season fixtures while playing all 90 minutes in 13 of those opportunities. Heading into the postseason, Schiemann stands tied for fourth on the Nittany Lion roster with seven points split between a trio of goals and a single assist.
Fusco and Schiemann become Penn State’s 56th and 57th Second Team All-Big Ten Conference designees in program history, with the pair joining a long line of Penn State legends to secure those honors. PSU’s 2024 Second Team duo become the first Nittany Lions to secure those accolades since Eva Alonso and Katherine Asman both garnered Second Team All-B1G recognition in the conference’s postseason release a year ago. The Blue & White garnered a pair of Second Team All-B1G choices in back-to-back seasons for the first time since 2017 and 2018, when Megan Schafer and Kaleigh Riehl were succeeded by Alina Ortega Jurado and Charlotte Williams.
The Big Ten also recognized 18 Sportsmanship Award honorees, with one representative from each member institution. Each student-athlete chosen has distinguished themselves through sportsmanship and ethical behavior and must also be in good academic standing while demonstrating good citizenship outside of the competition field. The Nittany Lions selected a team captain and one of the longest-tenured student-athletes in program history, with Olive recognizing PSU on the B1G stage in 2024. Olive has appeared in 89 matches for the Blue & White since her debut in the 2019 regular season, making 20 career starts highlighted by a single-season career best with seven starts in the 2024 campaign. Her contributions as a leader have helped contribute to five straight Sweet 16 appearances, two Big Ten Tournament championships, a B1G regular season crown as well as one NCAA Quarterfinal bid.
No. 22 Penn State women’s soccer, led by its quartet of Big Ten Conference postseason honorees, opens the 2024 B1G Women’s Soccer tournament later tonight, Friday, November 1, as the 10th-seeded Nittany Lions square off against the host Minnesota Golden Gophers in a 7:30 p.m. (ET) fixture from Elizabeth Lyle Robbie Stadium in Saint Paul, Minnesota. The winner of Friday night’s opening round matchup in the Twin Cities will go on to compete against second-seeded and ninth-ranked UCLA in the quarterfinals from Minneapolis-Saint Paul on Monday, November 4, with kickoff slated for 4 p.m. (ET). All first round and quarterfinal matches in the 2024 B1G Tournament will stream live to a worldwide audience of authenticated subscribers via B1G+ and the B1G+ app.
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