UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – Highlighted by a historic offensive output that featured six different goal scorers, the fourth-seeded and 22nd-ranked Penn State women’s soccer team dominated from start to finish in an 8-1 opening round victory over the Stony Brook Seawolves to kick off the 2024 NCAA Division I Women’s Soccer Championships from Jeffrey Field on Saturday night.
Penn State’s offensive output generated a historic performance, with the Nittany Lions amassing their most goals against an NCAA Division I opponent since an 8-0 victory over the Iowa Hawkeyes in Big Ten Conference play on October 9, 2005, cementing the highest-scoring performance against a DI challenger under the direction of 18th-year head coach Erica Dambach. The Blue & White finished their dominant performance with 11 total assists on the night, setting a single match assist record in the process. The previous record of 10 assists occurred on two occasions in Penn State history before the NCAA Tournament opener Saturday, with the most recent of those chances coming on April 3, 2021, against the Maryland Terrapins during the COVID-maligned 2021 spring campaign. PSU also logged a 10-assist outing on November 20, 2015, during the NCAA Tournament against Boston University, a 6-0 win in the second round en route to the program’s only National Championship.
The Blue & White continued to showcase their historic level of success at the sport’s highest level on Saturday night, with the Nittany Lions extending their opening round win streak to 16 consecutive matches dating to the last PSU opening round loss in 2008. Penn State’s 16-match streak is the second-longest active run in Division I women’s soccer, trailing Florida State’s 20 consecutive opening round wins following their result Friday night in Tallahassee. Penn State improves to 64-27-3 all-time in the NCAA Tournament following Saturday’s win, rising to 47-7-1 on Jeffrey Field in the national postseason.
PSU’s result in front of their hometown fans saw the Nittany Lions improve to 13-6-3 overall in one of the most battle-tested seasons in program history. The Blue & White also picked up their third consecutive NCAA Tournament victory over the Seawolves all-time, improving to 3-0-0 in the series against Stony Brook since the first meeting in 2017. All three matchups between Penn State and Stony Brook have come in the national postseason, with PSU outscoring the Seawolves by an 18-2 margin in those trio of opportunities. Following Saturday’s result, Stony Brook concludes their season with a 14-4-3 overall record with a CAA regular season and tournament championship to their credit in 2024.
As a team, Penn State was statistically dominant in every facet of Saturday night’s historic performance, with the Blue & White winning every statistical contest by a decisive margin. PSU took home a 28-6 win in the shot chart and outpaced Stony Brook by a 16-4 margin in terms of on-target shot attempts. The Nittany Lions registered a 7-3 victory in the corner kick competition, improving to 6-0-1 overall when winning the corner battle in the 2024 campaign. On the officiating side of things, both teams benefitted from limited whistles, with the two programs combining for a meager five total fouls with zero cautions issued in the opening round matchup.
On an individual basis, the Nittany Lions called on 11 different student-athletes to deliver eight goals and a historic 11-assist performance overall, amounting to 27 total points to additionally surpass the program’s all-time single match point record. PSU's 27-point total moved past a 26-point effort against Bucknell on September 25, 2001, a 9-2 victory in regular season competition. PSU saw multi-goal efforts from graduate forward Rebecca Cooke and freshman forward Aubrey Kulpa, with single-goal outings coming for redshirt senior forward Kaitlyn MacBean, freshman midfielder Katie Scott, freshman defender Bella Ayscue and redshirt junior midfielder Julia Raich. Ayscue and Scott both booked their first collegiate goals, while Kulpa matched her season and career highs in the process.
In the assist column, the Blue & White called on eight different student-athletes to muster the historic 11-assist effort. Ayscue paired her first collegiate goal with a pair of assists on the night, while redshirt senior midfielder Olivia Damico and graduate midfielder Natalie Wilson both set career highs in assists with two. Senior midfielder Jordan Fusco improved on her career-best season in the passing game with her 11th dish of the campaign, while junior forward Amelia White, sophomore defender Kaelyn Wolfe and Raich added feeds of their own.
Between the pipes, redshirt sophomore goalkeeper Mackenzie Gress and redshirt junior midfielder Amanda Poorbuagh combined for Penn State’s 11th clean sheet of the 2024 season. Gress played the first 57 minutes and logged a pair of saves with one goal allowed, while Poorbaugh came in for the final 33 minutes of the match and tallied a save to close things out. Stony Brook goalkeeper Nicolette Pasquarella was tested by a slew of Penn State chances on net, swatting away eight saves with eight goals allowed in the complete-match outing.
Neither team managed any significant scoring chances in the opening moments of the contest, with both squads beginning to feel out the heightened national postseason environment. Penn State was able to find the back of the net for the first time in the ninth minute, when Fusco and Ayscue connected with MacBean for the opening score of the contest. Less than 10 minutes later, the Blue & White were ultimately able to capitalize on impressive play in the build to double their early advantage, with White slotting a ball through a line of Seawolves to find Ayscue for her first collegiate goal. Ayscue used a right-footed finish to force a deflection off the Stony Brook keeper for a 2-0 advantage in the early going.
Penn State needed just 20 minutes more to find an additional score, as a throw-in near the righthand corner of the pitch sparked a scoring chance for PSU, with Damico tossing the ball forward to Cooke just outside the box. Cooke dribbled into the penalty area near the end line and served the ball back toward Raich in a point-blank position outside the goal mouth. Raich took one step to her right to elude the keeper and chipped the ball with her right foot over the keeper’s body for a 2-0 lead. In the 42nd, Raich worked her way through the center circle and continued the high-octane attack, playing through another line of Seawolves defenders to Cooke. With a quartet of Stony Brook players on her right flank, Cooke outworked the back line and snuck a clean right-footed finish into the lower left corner for goal number four before the halftime break.
Following the intermission, Penn State waited seven minutes before registering their fifth score of the night, as Ayscue found Scott for her first career goal. Six minutes later, Stony Brook was able to answer back, but Penn State extended their lead back to five following a tally from Cooke on an assist from Wolfe in the 64th. With time winding down in the match, a pair of tallies came for the Nittany Lions courtesy of Kulpa in the 88th minute of play. The Nittany Lion rookie scored back-to-back goals in 41 seconds of action, the fastest a single student-athlete has booked back-to-back goals on their own since MAC Hermann Trophy winner Christie Welsh tallied in a 16-second span against Indiana on September 22, 2000. With the final two Nittany Lion goals in the books, Penn State came away with an 8-1 win to advance to the second round next weekend.
SCORING SUMMARY
9’ – Fusco worked her way into the far corner on the right side of the pitch, passing the ball back to Ayscue just outside the edge of the 18. The rookie delivered a pinpoint service into the box for a perfectly timed jump from MacBean, with the veteran attacker utilizing her head to knock her 15th goal of the campaign into the bottom left corner of the goal past a diving effort from Pasquarella. PSU 1, SBU 0
17’ – White collected a feed from MacBean on the right side of the pitch and switched fields on the dribble, delivering a sweet pass through a line of Seawolves defenders to Ayscue on the left portion of the box. The freshman took a pair of touches to take more space in the 18 and clobbered the ball toward the Stony Brook keeper. The ball caromed off Pasquarella’s glove into the back right corner of the net, guaranteeing Ayscue’s first collegiate goal. PSU 2, SBU 0
37’ – A throw-in near the righthand corner of the pitch sparked a scoring chance for PSU, with Damico tossing the ball forward to Cooke just outside the box. Cooke dribbled into the penalty area near the end line and served the ball back toward Raich in a point-blank position outside the goal mouth. Raich took one step to her right to elude the keeper and chipped the ball with her right foot over the keeper’s body to make it a three-goal match. PSU 3, SBU 0
42’ – The Nittany Lions turned their attention to direct scoring chances as the half began to wind down, with Wolfe playing a long ball forward to midfield for a waiting Raich. PSU’s third goal scorer worked her way through the center circle and continued the high-octane attack, playing through another line of Seawolves defenders to Cooke. With a quartet of Stony Brook defenders on her right flank, Cooke outworked the back line and snuck a clean right-footed finish into the lower left corner for goal number four. PSU 4, SBU 0
52’ – In PSU’s first significant scoring chance of the second half, Ayscue worked her way toward the end line on the left side of the pitch and used her left foot to pelt the ball into the six. Scott was waiting patiently inside the goal box and used her head to bury her first collegiate goal just inside the right post. PSU 5, SBU 0
58’ – Stony Brook battled to get a goal back early in the second half of play, with Garcia working her way down the right side of the field and delivering a service into the box. Setteducate headed the ball effectively into the back right corner past a last-ditch diving effort from Gress. PSU 5, SBU 1
64’ – Wolfe took a pair of dribbles on the right side of the field around 40 yards away from the goal mouth, where she served up a magnificent ball into the box for a largely unmarked Cooke. In the hunt for her second goal of the night, Cooke used a high boot to elevate the ball and bide her time, ultimately collecting the ball on the way down with her right foot to chip the goalkeeper just underneath the crossbar for the sixth Nittany Lion score of the evening. PSU 6, SBU 1
88’ – Damico went down to the ground delivering a quick service through a slew of Stony Brook defenders just past the midway point of the field. The ball found its way to Wilson running centrally into the final third, where she delivered the ball quickly through a pair of Seawolves to Kulpa on her lefthand side, taking possession of the ball around 20 yards out from the goal. A pair of dribbles carried Kulpa into the box, utilizing a left-footed shot to pelt the ball off the goalkeeper’s side into the back left corner of the net. PSU 7, SBU 1
88’ – Less than a minute after Kulpa’s first goal of the night, Wilson delivered a perfect pass forward to Damico, who found herself in possession of the ball following the Stony Brook kickoff in the Penn State defensive third. A pristine run from the rookie forward carried her through a line of Stony Book defenders into open space. Multiple dribbles from the midfield line into the 18 allowed Kulpa the opportunity to bury her second of the evening, a right-footed ball slotted into the back right corner just inside the penalty area. PSU 8, SBU 1
UP NEXT
Fourth-seeded and 22nd-ranked Penn State women’s soccer continues its journey through the 2024 NCAA Division I Women’s Soccer Championships in the second round. The Nittany Lions will square off against the fifth-seeded and seventh-ranked TCU Horned Frogs in a rematch of a 2023 regular season meeting in Happy Valley. The Blue & White will battle the Horned Frogs from the Seminole Soccer Complex on the campus of top-seeded Florida State next Friday, November 22, with kick time to be determined. All opening round NCAA Tournament matches will stream live to a worldwide audience of authenticated subscribers via ESPN+ and the ESPN app on connected devices.
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