No. 11 Women’s Soccer Opens 2025 Season at No. 4 Duke
Penn State opens 2025-26 academic year with monumental matchup in North Carolina
#11 Penn State at #4 Duke
2024 | 15-7-3 | 5-4-2 B1G
2024 | 18-3-1 | 9-0-1 ACC
DURHAM, N.C. – No. 11 Penn State women's soccer kicks off its 32nd varsity campaign and the 19th season of the Erica Dambach era on Thursday, August 14, as the Nittany Lions travel to Koskinen Stadium to face off against the fourth-ranked and defending Women's College Cup participant Duke Blue Devils in a 7 p.m. (ET) fixture. The contest will stream live to a worldwide audience of authenticated subscribers via ACCNX and the ESPN app on connected devices.
Follow the Action
For fans of the Nittany Lions unable to attend Thursday night’s blockbuster in North Carolina, the Nittany Lions’ nationally ranked clash and 2025 season opener will be streamed to a worldwide audience of authenticated subscribers via ACCNX and the ESPN app. Dean Linke and Matt Stradley will call the action from the Koskinen Stadium press box. Click the link here to be redirected to the live stream of the broadcast and sign in with credentials for access. Live stats provided by Duke University and StatBroadcast are available here. The link to purchase tickets for Thursday night’s match is available here.
KICKIN’ IT
The Blue & White return to the pitch following their second consecutive run to the NCAA Tournament's National Quarterfinals in 2024, publishing a 15-7-3 overall record paired with a 5-4-2 mark in the Big Ten Conference. A season ago, Penn State extended the nation’s longest active streak of consecutive Sweet 16 appearances to eight-straight. The Blue & White also secured the program’s 30th consecutive NCAA Tournament bid and booked the team's 31st consecutive season with at least 10 victories, with both of those accomplishments marking the second-longest active stretches of that nature in women's college soccer.
PSU was well-represented in both United Soccer Coaches and TopDrawerSoccer's lists of preseason accolades, with a quartet of Nittany Lion student-athletes garnering individual attention. Graduate forward Kaitlyn MacBean, junior defender Kaelyn Wolfe and sophomore defender Bella Ayscue were all recognized as United Soccer Coaches Players to Watch at their respective positions, while MacBean and redshirt junior defender Kayleigh Herr were both honored as Preseason Top 100 Players by TopDrawerSoccer. The Big Ten Conference preseason coaches poll saw Penn State selected to finish third in the league in 2025 behind USC and UCLA. PSU also saw a trio of student-athletes tabbed as Big Ten Players to Watch, with MacBean, redshirt junior midfielder Molly Martin and senior forward Amelia White garnering those accolades. MacBean, Martin and White are three of PSU's six returning starters from 2024, with redshirt junior goalkeeper Mackenzie Gress, Herr and Ayscue rounding out that group.
OPEN SEASON
The Blue & White prepare for their 32nd all-time season-opening match on Thursday night on the road in Durham, with Penn State boasting a 20-8-3 overall record in the first match of the year. The Nittany Lions have opened the season at home in Happy Valley in each of the past four seasons, with PSU last opening a campaign on the road in the spring 2021 campaign. Penn State will open a season on the road for the 12th time in program history, with the Blue & White managing a 4-7-0 record in opening-night road fixtures since the team's inaugural season in 1994. Over the past four seasons, Penn State is unbeaten in season-opening matchups highlighted by a 3-1 win over UMass in 2021, a pair of ties against then-No. 19 Georgetown in 2022 and No. 2 North Carolina in 2023, and a raucous 4-0 thrashing of then-No. 8 Texas Tech in Happy Valley last year.
WHAT WE GOT BACK
Penn State returns 58% of its goal scoring from the 2024 Elite Eight campaign, including both of its top two scorers in graduate forward Kaitlyn MacBean and sophomore forward Aubrey Kulpa. The Blue & White also welcome back 53% of their overall scoring, with returning assist leaders in senior forward Amelia White and sophomore defender Bella Ayscue boasting five apiece. MacBean is one of six student-athletes returning from the 2025 campaign that scored 34 points or more, with the Nittany Lion joining North Carolina's Kate Faasse, Notre Dame's Izzy Engle, Alabama transfer Larkin Thomason, Utah Valley's Faith Webber and James Madison's Ginny Lackey. Between the posts, Penn State returns 100% of its goalkeeper minutes played from 2024, with all three Nittany Lion netminders from last year's roster returning for the 2025 campaign. Redshirt junior Mackenzie Gress and redshirt senior Amanda Poorbaugh combined for a 0.88 GAA last year.
Next Up: #4 Duke
DANCING WITH THE BLUE DEVILS
Under the direction of first-year head coach Kieran Hall, the Duke Blue Devils enter the 2025 campaign refreshed following a dominant 2024 season that featured an impressive 18-3-1 overall record paired with an unblemished 9-0-1 mark in ACC play to secure the league's regular season championship. The Blue Devils also mustered an appearance in the Women's College Cup a year ago, falling by a 3-0 margin to eventual national champion North Carolina in legendary head coach Robbie Church's final outing before retirement. Duke enters the new season boasting a trio of Preseason All-ACC selections in Mia Oliaro, Mia Minestrella and Cameron Roller, with Oliaro and Roller also appearing on the TopDrawerSoccer Preseason Best XI teams. Minestrella, a native of Redondo Beach, California, is Duke's lead returning goal-scorer (12) and point-earner (31), while Oliaro leads returning Blue Devils in assists with 13. The Blue Devils welcome back five members of last year's College Cup starting XI, a unit that ranked second in the ACC and 21st in college soccer in terms of goals-against average with a 0.727 mark. Between the pipes, Duke will turn to a new starter following the ascent of Leah Freeman to the professional ranks, with both Caroline Dysart and Bianca Dominguez returning from last year.
STORY OF THE SERIES
In a clash of two of the sport's biggest brands, Penn State and Duke will square off in the marquee matchup of opening night to mark the seventh all-time fixture between the two sides in history. PSU leads the all-time series through the prior six fixtures by a 4-1-1 differential, going unbeaten against Duke since falling in the inaugural meeting in 1999. The Nittany Lions and Blue Devils will face off in the regular season for just the fifth time ever on Thursday, with PSU leading the regular season series by a 2-1-1 margin. Penn State will mark its second-ever trip to Koskinen Stadium this week, with the last matchup of the two teams in Durham coming on September 7, 2014, a gritty 4-3 Penn State road victory. Notably, Thursday's fixture will mark the first meeting of the two sides since clashing in the 2015 NCAA Women's College Cup final, a match in which Penn State published a 1-0 victory to secure the program's first and only national title. Eventual MAC Hermann Trophy winner Raquel Rodriguez found the back of the net on a helper from Mallory Weber in the 72nd minute.
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.
The 2025 Penn State women's soccer season is presented by Highmark.