No. 22 Women’s Soccer Set for Eighth-Straight Sweet 16 Against Vanderbilt
Nittany Lions boast longest active Sweet 16 streak in America, seek second-straight Elite Eight berth
NCAA Tournament Third Round | #22 Penn State vs. Vanderbilt
14-6-3 | 5-4-2 B1G
10-3-7 | 4-2-4 SEC
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Set for its eighth-consecutive trip to the third round of the NCAA Division I Women's Soccer Championships, the fourth-seeded and 22nd-ranked Penn State Nittany Lions continue postseason play against the eighth-seeded Vanderbilt Commodores on Sunday evening from the Seminole Soccer Complex on the campus of Florida State University. Penn State and Vanderbilt will battle in a 5:30 p.m. (ET) fixture in North Florida, with the match set to stream to a worldwide audience of authenticated subscribers via ESPN+ and the ESPN app.
Follow the Action
Fans interested in attending the third round of the 2024 NCAA Tournament in Tallahassee are invited to click here to purchase tickets. Click the link here to access the NCAA Tournament interactive bracket. For fans of the Nittany Lions unable to attend Sunday’s contest against Vanderbilt on the campus of Florida State University, the match will stream live to a worldwide audience of authenticated subscribers via ESPN+ and the ESPN app on connected devices at the link here. Ariya Massoudi and Trevor DeGroot will call the action live from the Seminole Soccer Complex press box. Live stats provided by the Florida State University and National Collegiate Athletic Association will be available on the Penn State women’s soccer schedule webpage on GoPSUsports.com on the day of the match.
KICKIN’ IT
Iced by redshirt senior forward Kaitlyn MacBean’s 16th tally of the season and sixth match-winning goal of the 2024 campaign, Penn State recorded a 1-0 victory over fifth-seeded and seventh-ranked TCU on Friday afternoon in the second round of the 2024 NCAA Division I Women’s Soccer Championships in Tallahassee. The win guaranteed Penn State’s eighth-consecutive trip to the NCAA Tournament Third Round, marking the longest active Sweet 16 streak in Division I. Penn State entered the second round tied with defending national champion Florida State, but assumed sole possession of the longest active Sweet 16 streak after the Seminoles failed to advance past Vanderbilt later in Friday night's tournament action.
In yet another pivotal matchup with the national spotlight trained on Penn State’s redshirt senior striker, MacBean delivered once again for her 16th goal and sixth match-winning score of the 2024 season. MacBean has amassed one of the most statistically significant seasons in recent memory for the Blue & White, becoming the highest-scoring student-athlete in a single season since Ally Schlegel turned in a 33-point showing in the 2019 campaign with 13 goals and seven assists. MacBean has paired her 16 goals with a single helper in 2024, amounting to 33 points overall. MacBean has now found the back of the net in five consecutive NCAA Tournament matches for PSU dating to a tally against Santa Clara in the second round of last year's tournament in Happy Valley.
Senior midfielder Jordan Fusco added her name to Friday night's final box score with yet another assist on a MacBean match-winner, marking the veteran attacking midfielder’s 12th helper of 2024. Fusco has recorded the most assists in a single season by a Nittany Lion since current NWSL starter and U.S. Women’s National Team midfielder Sam Coffey booked 12 in the Blue & White during the COVID-adjusted 2020-21 spring campaign.
SECOND ROUND SHENANIGANS!
The second round of the 2024 NCAA Division I Women's Soccer Championships lived up to the billing as one of the most dramatic single days of competition in the college game this year. Penn State tallied a win in the second round of national postseason play for a nation's-best eighth year in a row, toppling TCU by a 1-0 margin in neutral site action from Tallahassee, Florida. Just 11 of the nation's top 16 seeded teams remain in the NCAA Tournament, with the notable absence of 2023 National Champion Florida State following a stunning penalty kick shootout loss to the Vanderbilt Commodores in the second round Friday night. Additional top-four seeds in #2 UCLA, #3 South Carolina, #4 Texas and #4 Virginia round out the five favorites that missed the Sweet 16. Penn State's victory in the second round over the Horned Frogs saw TCU take home victories in multiple statistical categories, but ultimately fail to test PSU's back line with a dangerous scoring opportunity. The Nittany Lions appeared to tally 30 seconds into the second half, a score that was ultimately deemed offsides, but found the back of the net two minutes later to finalize the 1-0 scoreline.
THE B1GGEST. THE BOLDEST.
The Big Ten Conference has established itself as one of the premier entities in women's college soccer with its performance through the first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament. Seven different B1G programs punched their ticket to the Sweet 16 on Friday, the largest contingent of teams from one league remaining in the tournament field. The B1G leads the nation with seven teams, while the Atlantic Coast Conference boasts six programs and the Southeastern Conference maintains the remaining three. The Big Ten published a combined 8-1-1 record in the first round with nine advancing teams including Washington via PK shootout, with the league going 6-2-1 in second round competition with another advancement via PK's for Iowa. In total, the B1G is 14-3-2 overall in the 2024 tournament and has advanced on 16-of-18 chances. Seven of the 10 Big Ten Conference entrants remain in the national postseason field, including #1 USC, #3 Iowa, #3 Ohio State, #4 Penn State, #5 Michigan State, #5 Wisconsin and #6 Minnesota.
Next Up: Vanderbilt
CONFRONTING THE COMMODORES
Led by a 25-year head coaching veteran Darren Ambrose, the Vanderbilt Commodores arrive in the third round of the NCAA Tournament for the first time in program history boasting a 10-3-7 overall record paired with a 4-2-4 finish in Southeastern Conference play. Vanderbilt earned the No. 5 seed in the 2024 SEC Tournament but were bounced in the first round by 12th-seeded Alabama. The Commodores secured an at-large selection to the NCAA Tournament, dominating Lipscomb in the first round, 4-1, before notching one of the most significant upsets in recent NCAA Tournament history in the second round on Friday. Vandy forced a 3-3 draw with defending national champion Florida State and advanced following a 4-3 win in the penalty kick shootout. Vanderbilt opened the 2024 season with an unbeaten non-conference campaign through seven matches, going 5-0-2 early on. The Commodores notched notable draws with a pair of NCAA Tournament teams in Georgetown and Kansas, pairing their non-conference slate with a quartet of SEC regular season wins. Junior defender Hannah McLaughlin headlines a quartet of All-SEC performers on the Commodore roster as the sole First Team honoree. Statistically speaking, Caroline Betts leads the roster in scoring with 21 points, while Sydney Watts is the top goal scorer with nine this year. Goalkeeper Sara Wojdelko is fresh off a monster performance against Florida State that included a pair of saves in the PK shootout. Wojdelko leads the team with 52 saves and seven shutouts in 2024.
STORY OF THE SERIES
Penn State and Vanderbilt prepare for the second all-time meeting in an all-time series that dates to the COVID-maligned 2020-21 spring season, with the Nittany Lions leading the series 1-0-0. PSU and Vandy will also square off in the NCAA Tournament at a neutral site for the second time ever, with the 2021 spring meeting from May 1 of that year coming from WakeMed Soccer Park in Cary, North Carolina, the host site of the 2024 NCAA Women's College Cup. The Blue & White share a pair of common opponents with Vanderbilt, with both of those opponents battling the Nittany Lions and Commodores in non-conference action earlier this season. Penn State and Vanderbilt both played to respective scoreless draws with Georgetown while securing victories over Ivy League squad Columbia. The Nittany Lions bested the Lions by a 2-1 margin in Happy Valley, while Vandy toppled CU, 3-0, in Nashville. The only prior fixture featuring the two sides came in the second round of the 2020-21 NCAA Tournament, with the Nittany Lions coming away with a 2-0 win. Kristin Schnurr logged credit for the match-winning tally in the 62nd, with current Spanish professional Eva Alonso adding an insurance tally 11 minutes later.
Follow the Nittany Lions
Visit GoPSUSports.com for more information on Penn State women’s soccer. Fans can keep up to date with the Nittany Lion women’s soccer team on X and Instagram @PennStateWSOC, in addition to the team’s Facebook page at /PSUWomensSoccer.