CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – Penn State women’s soccer’s 2025 season came to an end on Thursday night, as the Nittany Lions dropped a heartbreaking 2-0 decision to the top-seeded and seventh-ranked Virginia Cavaliers from Klöckner Stadium.
The 2025 Nittany Lions closed the book on a 10-8-3 season following the second-round defeat in Charlottesville. PSU secured its 31st consecutive appearance in the NCAA Tournament this season and previously picked up its 17th-straight opening round win earlier this week against the Army Black Knights in Happy Valley. Following the win, Virginia improves to 14-3-4 overall and will advance to host the fourth-seeded and Big Ten Conference champion Washington Huskies in Charlottesville this Sunday, November 23, in the third round of the national postseason. In the all-time series between the two sides, UVA secured its 11th win over PSU and rose to 11-8-1 since the first fixture in 1997.
As a team, Penn State battled tough and looked like an extremely dangerous side throughout the match, battling Virginia, one of the most possession-focused teams in the nation, relatively even in the battle for the ball. Despite the relatively even fixture in the run of play, Virginia was able to notch statistical victories in total shots by a 21-13 margin in addition to shots on goal by an 8-4 differential. PSU was able to record more saves over the course of the 90 minutes, logging six against UVA’s four, and additionally logged a win in the corner kick competition by a 3-2 margin.
Individually, Penn State was led by a quintet of student-athletes with multiple attempts in the shot column, namely redshirt junior midfielder Molly Martin, senior forward Amelia White, graduate forward Kaitlyn MacBean, freshman midfielder Kennedy Ring and redshirt freshman defender Lilly Burger. All five of those student-athletes mustered two shot attempts apiece, with PSU’s four shots on goal going in the book for White, Ring, redshirt junior defender Kayleigh Herr and redshirt senior midfielder Julia Raich. A trio of fielders saw 90 minutes of action in the second round against the Cavaliers, with MacBean, Burger and sophomore defender Bella Ayscue earning that distinction.
Between the pipes, redshirt junior goalkeeper Mackenzie Gress turned in one of her more impressive individual performances on the 2025 season, including a highlight-reel two-save sequence in the second half of play. Gress, a native of Lyndhurst, New Jersey, surrendered a pair of scores while turning back six saves over the course of her 90 minutes on the pitch. Gress finished the season with 60 saves on the 2025 campaign and played full-time in 16 of 21 matches this year. For Virginia, netminder Victoria Safradin logged a clean sheet over her 90 minutes on the field, notching four saves in the shutout.
The first 15 minutes of the match passed largely without incident, with both squads managing one shot apiece in that span. Virginia managed the first corner kick of the match in the fourth minute of action but were unable to get a quality chance out of the opportunity. The Cavaliers were able to log the first attempt of the night off a hard-hit try from the left corner of the 18 that sailed high, but PSU was able to answer back on the shot chart with a header attempt from Herr off a corner kick in the 15th minute of play. PSU added another quality chance off a corner from the far side in the 21st minute, but Burger’s header attempt bounced right of the far post for a UVA goal kick. Little happened statistically over the ensuing moments, but the Cavaliers were able to find the back of the net in the 33rd minute of play for the lid-lifting tally.
Virginia utilized strong possession down the left side of the pitch to generate a lethal scoring opportunity, with Lia Godfrey feeding a ball to her right for Jill Flammia inside the 18. Flammia rocketed a shot off her right boot toward the center of the Nittany Lion net, but a perfectly-timed kick save from Gress prevented a Cavalier goal on the team’s first attempt. Unfortunately, a follow-up effort off the ricochet was knocked in by Cagle, putting Virginia up by a score in the 33rd. Penn State was able to battle back with an impressive offensive effort as the half wound down, and the Nittany Lion back line kept UVA off the scoreboard for the remainder of the opening stanza, but the Blue & White entered the locker room at halftime trailing by one.
The Cavaliers were able to maintain their offensive momentum out of the intermission, logging the first four shot attempts of the second half of play. Penn State was able to net another attempt from White to snap the Virginia momentum, but the Cavaliers were able to ice the match with a score in the 68th minute. The home side was able to win a corner kick off a difficult call from the center official, and a pair of connections off the corner attempt from Ella Carter and Tatum Galvin found Godfrey for the match-clinching tally. PSU attempted a comeback, playing with a frenetic place over the final 15 minutes of action, but were ultimately unable to overcome the two-goal deficit as UVA advanced to the third round of the NCAA Tournament.
SCORING SUMMARY
33’ – Virginia utilized strong possession down the left side of the pitch to generate a lethal scoring opportunity, with Godfrey feeding a ball to her right for Flammia inside the 18. Flammia rocketed a shot off her right boot toward the center of the Nittany Lion net, but a perfectly-timed kick save from Gress prevented a Cavalier goal on the team’s first attempt. Unfortunately, a follow-up effort off the ricochet was knocked in by Cagle, putting Virginia up by a score in the 33rd. UVA 1, PSU 0
68’ – The home side was able to win a corner kick off a difficult call from the center official, and a pair of connections off the corner attempt from Ella Carter and Tatum Galvin found Godfrey for the match-clinching tally. UVA 2, PSU 0
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The 2025 Penn State women's soccer season is presented by Highmark.