DURHAM, N.C. – Despite wielding a 2-1 lead early in a raucous opening half of play, the 11th-ranked Penn State women’s soccer team dropped a hard-fought 3-2 decision to the fourth-ranked and defending Women’s College Cup participant Duke Blue Devils Thursday night from Koskinen Stadium.
At the conclusion of opening night’s marquee match, Penn State dropped to 0-1-0 overall while the Blue Devils rose to 1-0-0. Following Penn State’s 32nd season-opening contest, the Nittany Lions moved to 20-9-3 in season openers all-time while dropping to 4-8-0 after the program’s 12th-ever season opener in a true road environment. Duke’s victory over the Blue & White snapped a four-season season-opening unbeaten streak that dated back to the COVID-adjusted spring 2021 season. Following the seventh all-time meeting of the two sides, Duke inched closer to PSU’s lead in the series, with the Nittany Lions now wielding a 4-2-1 advantage over their counterparts from North Carolina.
The home side largely commanded the run of play on Thursday night, with the Blue Devils mustering a 28-8 differential on the final shot chart in addition to a 7-3 lead in terms of shots placed on target. Duke forced 13 corners in the match and surrendered a single Nittany Lion attempt, with both teams managing one goal from set-piece opportunities in the season-opening showdown. The Nittany Lions racked up four saves while Duke recorded a single stop, the strongest statistical margin for PSU on the evening. Whistles were a rare occurrence Thursday night, with both teams logging six fouls while the Blue Devils were saddled with the only caution of the contest in the 71st minute.
Individually, a quartet of Nittany Lions made their formal collegiate debuts in the match, with freshman defender Hannah Jordan highlighting the group by making her first collegiate start and finding the back of the net for her first tally in the college game. Jordan, a native of Southlake, Texas, tallied 79 minutes of work on the back line and mustered a set-piece score on her only shot attempt of the night. Elsewhere in the lineup, redshirt freshman forward Jolie Farmer, redshirt sophomore forward Nico Kiorpes and freshman midfielder Riley Cross each saw action on a collegiate field for the first time in their respective careers.
In what is expected to be a preview of coming attractions, standout sophomore forward Aubrey Kulpa tallied her eighth goal as a collegian and was responsible for the first Nittany Lion score of the 2025 campaign on a long-range effort less than five minutes into the contest. Kulpa, a native of Cromwell, Connecticut, played 70 minutes in the match and paralleled Jordan by scoring on her only shot attempt of the night. Rounding out the trio of Nittany Lions in the scoring column was redshirt senior midfielder Riley Gleason, who delivered the first PSU assist of 2025 on a corner delivery that was headed in by Jordan. Penn State saw a pair of fielders play all 90 minutes, with redshirt junior midfielder Molly Martin and junior defender Kaelyn Wolfe earning that distinction. Between the pipes, redshirt junior goalkeeper Mackenzie Gress was saddled with the loss after playing all 90 minutes and recording a quartet of saves. For the Blue Devils, Bianca Dominguez earned the start and was responsible for both PSU goals, while Caroline Dysart entered at the start of the second half and kept the Nittany Lions off the board the rest of the way.
The Blue Devils wasted little time getting things started, as Duke found the back of the net in the early going after dangerous chances from both teams. Jocelyn Travers found Mia Minestrella with her back to the goal, and a flick forward from the latter found rookie Avery Oder in a dangerous attacking position. The Blue Devil managed to beat Gress with a right-footed shot from the left side to take an early advantage in the fourth minute. Not to be outdone, Penn State snapped back with a score of their own less than a minute later. A giveaway from the Blue Devils in the Nittany Lion third saw the ball find Kulpa’s boot around 35 yards away from the Duke goal. Kulpa engaged in a run through the central portion of the Duke back line and utilized some fancy footwork to battle toward the left side of the penalty area. From there, Kulpa reared back and unleashed a left-footed blast from 20 yards out to find the bottom right corner of the net.
Thursday’s rowdy opening stanza continued around 12 minutes later, as the Nittany Lions surged ahead with a goal in the 17th minute of play. Toughness in the final third from Kulpa saw the second-year Nittany Lion win a corner for the Blue & White along the end line, with Gleason standing ready over the ball on the nearside to deliver the service. Her in-swinging delivery cascaded into the six, where a tightly marked Jordan waited patiently near the back post. The rookie Penn Stater managed to get her head on the ball and found the lower left corner to put Penn State ahead. Unfortunately, a Penn State giveaway around midfield seven minutes later saw Kat Rader make her way down the field in a two-on-one break alongside Minestrella, with the former connecting to the latter around 20 yards outside the goal mouth. A sure-footed righty finish from Minestrella managed to even the match in the 24th, and the score would remain knotted at two apiece heading into the second half of play.
Penn State’s senior forward, Amelia White, managed to put the first Nittany Lion shot attempt of the second half on the board in the 52nd minute, but the attempt sailed out to the left and the match remained deadlocked at two. Then, in the 57th minute, the Blue Devils won a corner and had Rader attempt the service from the far side. Rader’s delivery sailed into the box from the corner and found Minestrella in the middle of the six, who headed the ball into the top central portion of the net in what proved to be the eventual match-winner. Nittany Lion graduate forward Kaitlyn MacBean published back-to-back near-equalizers from point-blank range in the 67th, but an unlucky bounce on a header careened off the woodwork of the left post, and her follow up effort was opportunistically corralled by Dysart. Unable to tally a match-tying score, the Nittany Lions suffered a narrow opening-night setback in Durham by a 3-2 final.
SCORING SUMMARY
4’ – Duke found the back of the net in the early going after dangerous chances from both teams, with the Blue Devils primarily working down the far side of the pitch. Travers found Minestrella with her back to the goal, and a flick forward from the latter found Oder. The Blue Devil managed to beat Gress with a right-footed shot from the left side to take an early advantage. DUKE 1, PSU 0
5’ – A giveaway from the Blue Devils in the Nittany Lion third saw the ball find Kulpa’s boot around 35 yards away from the Duke goal. Kulpa engaged in a run through the central portion of the Duke back line and utilized some fancy footwork to battle toward the left side of the penalty area. From there, Kulpa reared back and unleashed a left-footed blast from 20 yards out to find the bottom right corner of the net. PSU 1, DUKE 1
17’ – Toughness in the final third from Kulpa saw the second-year Nittany Lion win a corner for the Blue & White along the end line, with Gleason standing ready over the ball on the nearside to deliver the service. Her in-swinging delivery cascaded into the six, where a tightly marked Jordan waited patiently near the back post. The rookie Penn Stater managed to get her head on the ball and found the lower left corner to put Penn State ahead. PSU 2, DUKE 1
24’ – A Penn State giveaway around midfield saw Rader make her way down the field in a two-on-one break alongside Minestrella, with the former connecting to the latter around 20 yards outside the goal mouth. A sure-footed righty finish from Minestrella managed to even the match in the 24th. PSU 2, DUKE 2
57’ – The Blue Devils won a corner a little more than a quarter way through the second half, with Rader attempting the service for Duke from the far side. Rader’s delivery sailed into the box from the corner and found Minestrella in the middle of the six, who headed the ball into the top central portion of the net. DUKE 3, PSU 2
UP NEXT
No. 11 Penn State women's soccer takes a weeklong hiatus from competition and returns to the friendly confines of Jeffrey Field next Thursday, August 21, for the Nittany Lions’ 2025 home opener. The Blue & White prepare to battle the Saint Louis Billikens, who received votes in the United Soccer Coaches preseason poll, in an 8 p.m. (ET) fixture with streaming available to authenticated subscribers via B1G+ and the B1G+ app on connected devices. The match will serve as the second half of a doubleheader with the Nittany Lion men’s soccer program, opening their season at 5 p.m. (ET) against the Stetson Hatters before the women’s squad takes the field later that night.
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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.