UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – Eighth-ranked Penn State women’s soccer opened its 32nd season of Big Ten Conference competition with a bang on Thursday night, turning in an impressive 4-0 win over the Maryland Terrapins from Jeffrey Field highlighted by a five-point performance from sophomore forward Aubrey Kulpa.
The Nittany Lions improved to 5-2-1 overall through their eighth match of the campaign, rising to 1-0-0 in Big Ten Conference competition following the inaugural opportunity on the conference calendar. PSU improved to 24-5-3 overall in Big Ten regular season openers while rising to 29-2-1 in Big Ten home-opening fixtures. In the all-time series against the Terrapins, PSU rose to 18-4-0 overall and remains an untouched 11-0-0 against Maryland since the program migrated to the Big Ten Conference in 2014. Since Maryland joined the B1G, Penn State has now outscored the Terrapins by a 33-1 differential, with the only UMD tally coming on October 8, 2021, in an eventual 5-1 Penn State victory. Following Thursday’s result, Maryland dropped back to .500 at 4-4-0 overall with an 0-1-0 start to league action.
Penn State turned in its most dominant single performance of the 2025 season to date on Thursday night, with the Blue & White picking up statistical victories in practically every category. The Nittany Lions set a season-high mark in total shot attempts, clobbering 27 tries to mark the most in any PSU match since logging 28 shots against Stony Brook in the opening round of the 2024 NCAA Tournament. PSU racked up a 27-8 differential in total attempts while logging a 9-1 margin in shots on target. PSU won the corner kick competition for just the second time this season, as well as the second match in a row, remaining a perfect 2-0-0 when doing so thus far. The match concluded relatively clean, with neither team cautioned by the center referee while PSU logged six fouls against two from the Terps.
Kulpa, a native of Cromwell, Connecticut, published the highest-scoring individual performance of her collegiate career to date, scoring or assisting on all four Nittany Lion goals. The breakout second-year star finished the night with five points split between a goal and career-high shattering three assists. Kulpa found the back of the net for the seventh time this season on Thursday night, matching her total goal production from 2024 in 15 fewer matches. In the passing game, her trio of assists marked the most by a Nittany Lion student-athlete since Eva Alonso turned in a three-helper showing against the Terrapins on September 15, 2023. Kulpa is up to four assists on the season, surpassing her single-season career-high mark of three from 2024 in a single night. She also became the first Penn State women’s soccer player to score five points in a fixture since Rebecca Cooke logged a pair of goals and an assist for five points in the win over Stony Brook in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament last year.
Graduate forward Kaitlyn MacBean was a force to be reckoned with on the offensive end of the pitch, finding the back of the net twice in the second half against the Terrapins to mark her first multi-goal outing of the 2025 season in addition to her second and third goals of the year, respectively. MacBean, a native of Excelsior, Minnesota, tallied 44 minutes of work in the field and notched a brace in a match for the first time since September 1, 2024, when she helped steer PSU to a 2-1 victory over Saint Louis on the road thanks to a pair of personal tallies. MacBean added five total shots on the night and found the back of the net on her only two shots on target.
Elsewhere on the box score, senior forward Amelia White found the back of the net for her second score of the season to match the highest single-season goal output of her collegiate career. The Fort Wayne, Indiana, native added seven total shots for a match-high tally in that statistic, in addition to logging a quartet of shots on goal to lead all players. In addition to Kulpa’s trio of contributions in the passing game, redshirt junior midfielder Molly Martin logged her third assist of the season, sophomore defender Bella Ayscue notched her first assist of the campaign, freshman midfielder Hannah Jordan helped on her second goal as a collegian and Big Ten assist leader Riley Gleason notched her sixth helper of 2025 on MacBean’s second goal of the night. Penn State’s depth was the story of the night, with 22 different student-athletes seeing time in the decisive conference-opening victory.
In goal, Penn State combined for its third shutout of the season in addition to the team’s second consecutive clean sheet. Between the pipes, redshirt junior Mackenzie Gress stood watch over the Nittany Lion net for 63 minutes and was confronted with four shots and zero on-target attempts, earning credit for her fifth winning decision of the 2025 season. Gress tallied 63 minutes of work while redshirt senior Amanda Poorbaugh went the remaining 27 ticks, logging the only Nittany Lion save of the evening. For Maryland, Faith Luckey went the distance and tallied a quartet of saves against four goals allowed.
Penn State got out to a strong start in its first Big Ten Conference match of the season, with the Blue & White tallying a pair of scores in the ninth minute of action to set the tone for a dominant overall effort. In the early moments of the ninth minute, Ayscue won the ball back for the Blue & White just outside the center circle in the Nittany Lion attacking half, playing it forward quickly to Kulpa around 24 yards away from the Terrapin goal mouth. Kulpa utilized a tricky touch and a sweet pass to her right that found White on a solid run toward the Maryland penalty area. White took her time stepping up to the ball and slotted a strong left-footed effort into the bottom right corner for the opening tally.
Less than a minute following the lid-lifting goal, Martin took control of the possession for the Nittany Lions and elected to switch fields to the nearside, where Jordan took over for the Blue & White. The rookie sent the ball to her left, finding Kulpa just outside the Terrapin 18. A pair of right-footed side-step dribbles saw the second-year breakout star work into a clearing to Luckey’s right, where the Nittany Lion deked the keeper and slotted a magnificent right-footed effort just past the left post into the bottom left corner of the net to double the Nittany Lion lead in less than a minute. Penn State’s offense remained opportunistic with multiple dangerous chances over the remainder of the frame, but PSU’s dominant ninth minute marked the only two scores of the half.
The second stanza opened similar to the first, with a pair of Penn State scores in a narrow margin setting the tone for a strong final line. In the 50th, a run from Kulpa down the left side of the pitch materialized into a dangerous scoring opportunity for the Blue & White. Kulpa dribbled past defenders into the far edge of the Maryland 18-yard box, where she elected to deliver the ball centrally toward MacBean in the center of the penalty area. From a mere seven yards out, MacBean utilized a classy left-footed finish to slot the ball just under the crossbar for PSU’s third score of the night. Less than four minutes later, White created a dangerous opportunity on the right edge of the box. Her initial centering pass ricocheted off a Terrapin defender, ultimately finding the foot of Kulpa at the far-right corner of the six. Kulpa slotted the ball back to Gleason, who made the extra pass forward to MacBean. The Nittany Lion striker utilized a brilliant right-footed finish to slide the ball past Luckey into the bottom left corner for her second tally of the night. From that point forward, neither team managed to book an additional tally, as the Nittany Lions came away with a decisive 4-0 win to open B1G play.
SCORING SUMMARY
9 ‘– Ayscue won the ball back for the Blue & White just outside the center circle in the Nittany Lion attacking half, playing it forward quickly to Kulpa around 24 yards away from the Terrapin goal mouth. Kulpa utilized a tricky touch and a sweet pass to her right that found White on a solid run toward the Maryland penalty area. White took her time stepping up to the ball and slotted a strong left-footed effort into the bottom right corner for the opening tally. PSU 1, UMD 0
9’ – Less than a minute following the lid-lifting goal, Martin took control of the possession for the Nittany Lions and elected to switch fields to the nearside, where Jordan took over for the Blue & White. The rookie sent the ball to her left, finding Kulpa just outside the Terrapin 18. A pair of right-footed side-step dribbles saw the second-year breakout star work into a clearing to Luckey’s right, where the Nittany Lion deked the keeper and slotted a magnificent right-footed effort just past the left post into the bottom left corner of the net to double the Nittany Lion lead in less than a minute. PSU 2, UMD 0
50’ – Penn State’s strong start to the match bled into the early moments of the second half, as a run from Kulpa down the left side of the pitch materialized into a dangerous scoring opportunity for the Blue & White. Kulpa dribbled past defenders into the far edge of the Maryland 18-yard box, where she elected to deliver the ball centrally toward MacBean in the center of the penalty area. From a mere seven yards out, MacBean utilized a classy left-footed finish to slot the ball just under the crossbar for PSU’s third score of the night. PSU 3, UMD 0
53’ – PSU wasted little time adding their fourth and final score of the night, with White creating a dangerous opportunity on the right edge of the box. Her initial centering pass ricocheted off a Terrapin defender, ultimately finding the foot of Kulpa at the far-right corner of the six. Kulpa slotted the ball back to Gleason, who made the extra pass forward to MacBean. The Nittany Lion striker utilized a brilliant right-footed finish to slide the ball past Luckey into the bottom left corner for her second tally of the night. PSU 4, UMD 0
UP NEXT
No. 8 Penn State women's soccer continues its three-match B1G-opening homestand following a weeklong break from action, with the Nittany Lions welcoming the Nebraska Cornhuskers to Jeffrey Field on Thursday, September 18, at 6 p.m. (ET). The match will air to a national television audience via the Big Ten Network and FOX Sports App.
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The 2025 Penn State women's soccer season is presented by Highmark.