MATCH DAY: Penn State WSOC vs. Bucknell

OPENING KICKOFF

• Penn State women’s soccer hosts Bucknell at Jeffrey Field for the 2026 home opener. Kickoff is set for 7:30 p.m. (ET) with a live broadcast on B1G+. 

• With a win, head coach Erica Dambach, serving in the role for the 20th season, would earn her 300th career victory as the leader of Penn State women's soccer, further cementing her status as one of the all-time great coaches in collegiate women's soccer and Penn State Athletics. 

• The Nittany Lions are historically dominant in home openers at Jeffrey Field since the program’s first season in 1994, boasting a 24-3-5 record. Under Dambach, PSU is 12-2-5 in home-opening matches. 

• The Blue & White return home after falling short at then-No. 22, now No. 7, West Virginia, 2-1, in a battle between two top 25 squads. 

• Making her first career start, freshman forward Anna Babcock scored her first collegiate goal in the 11th minute off a left-footed rocket to opposite side post. Paige Kalal set Babcock up with a beautiful pass across from the top of the box to record her third point of the season.  

• Aubrey Kulpa earned Big Ten Offensive Player of the Week honors on August 18 after a three-point performance at Notre Dame. The junior forward assisted Paige Kalal’s goal before scoring one of her own just 1:19 later in an electric string of plays that gave the Nittany Lions a 2-0 lead at Alumni Stadium. 

• The Big Ten Conference published its preseason coaches poll on August 3 with the Nittany Lions placing sixth in the 18-member league. Michigan State earned the top spot followed by UCLA, defending regular season and tournament champion Washington, Wisconsin and Ohio State to round out the top five.

BATTLING BUCKNELL

• Bucknell enters Thursday night’s contest with a 3-1-0 record to start 2026. 

• The Bison are coming off back-to-back dominant victories with an 8-1 triumph over Mount St. Mary’s and a 4-0 shutout over LaSalle. Prior to that stretch, Bucknell split a western road trip with a season-opening, 1-0 victory at Montana before dropping a 1-0 result at Eastern Washington. 

• Ingrid Murphy leads the team in goals with three and is coming off a two-goal outing against LaSalle on August 23. She also scored in the season opener at Montana while recording an assist in the win over Mount St. Mary’s. 

• Presley Sutter and Tennessee Murphy have two goals apiece while five more Bison have notched goals in the Bison’s four games. Sutter is the reigning Patriot League Women’s Soccer Forward of the Week. 

• Gaby Parker leads Bucknell with three assists, including two in the victory over LaSalle. 

• Between the pipes, Sarah McFarland has started all four contests for the Bison. At the goalkeeper spot, she has allowed just one goal and made 11 saves. McFarland boasts a 0.29 goals against average with a save percentage of 0.917.

STORY OF THE SERIES

• Penn State and Bucknell have met 20 times previously with the Nittany Lions boasting an undefeated record against the Bison. The Blue & White own a 19-0-1 record in the all-time series. 

• The most recent matchup in the series was at the 2016 NCAA Tournament, a 6-0 victory for Penn State at Jeffrey Field. 

• In the prior three meetings, PSU outscored Bucknell by a massive, 19-0 margin. 

• The Nittany Lions hold a 14-0-0 series advantage in matches played in Happy Valley with a scoring differential of 62-7.