GAME DAY: Penn State FH vs. Maryland & Monmouth

A Tale of Two Opponents

The No. 5 Maryland Terrapins head to the Penn State Field Hockey Complex with an unblemished record through six games. Thursday’s game against the Terrapins marks the third top-five match up the Nittany Lions have faced in six games played.

The Terrapins offense is led by Francisca Echoyez and Babs van Hest with six goals for 12 points and four goals and six assists for 14 points, respectively. Alongside van Hest, Maci Bradford has also tallied six assists, and 10 other Terrapins have recorded points on the season. Alyssa Klebasko has secured the majority of the minutes in the cage and has 12 saves on the year with an 80% save rate. Maryland is led by head coach Missy Meharg with associate head coach Kasey Tapman Asper and assistant coaches Maddy Sposito and Dean Schiller.

Penn State and Maryland have matched up against one another 50 times prior to Thursday’s game. The Nittany Lions have the all-time series advantage by compiling a 28-21-1 record over the Terrapins, but Maryland has a current winning streak of three over Penn State.

The Nittany Lions head to West Long Branch, N.J. to take on the No. 19 Monmouth Hawks for the team’s third consecutive ranked game.

Monmouth’s offense is led by Milla Frye with eight goals and three assists for 19 points on the season. Maja Schöder and Lilly Ricks both have a trio of assists while a total of 16 Hawks have registered points. Charlie Bowman has been the primary goalkeeper for Monmouth with 10 saves and a save rate of 71.4% throughout 2026. The Hawks are helmed by head coach Carli Figlio and associate head coach David Williamson and volunteer assistant coach Teresa Schmidt.

This is the third matchup between Monmouth and Penn State with the Nittany Lions holding the 2-0 series advantage. Penn State has outscored Monmouth 14-3 in both games with the first game coming in 2010 at University Park. Sunday’s game will be the second time the two programs have played in West Long Branch, N.J.

Everybody Love Penn State Field Hockey

After five games at home, Penn State is still the nation’s leader in total attendance at the Penn State Field Hockey Complex.

In the first weekend of competition, 1,214 people spent their afternoons watching Penn State Field Hockey with the opening game against Virginia bringing in 792 souls, the biggest crowd at the Penn State Field Hockey Complex since October 22, 2023 when the Nittany Lions defeated the Iowa Hawkeyes in the team’s regular season finale.

During the second slate of games, the Nittany Lions welcomed an additional 718 fans to the confines of the Penn State Field Hockey Complex. In the third weekend, against a nationally ranked Princeton team, Penn State fans once again showed out with 642 attendees at the Penn State Field Hockey Complex.

The Penn State Field Hockey Complex has hosted 2,574 fans through the first five games of the season, the best mark in the nation, with an average of 515 per game, the third best nationally. When looking solely at the Big Ten, Penn State has nearly doubled Maryland for the next closest accumulative attendance and has a 50% higher average attendance than the Terrapins.

Nittany Newcomers

Penn State Field Hockey welcomed nine newcomers to its ranks for the 2026 season: Macy Adams, D’Hage, Dunn, Gaitan, Holmes, Lilah Grace Logan, Marie McCracken, Standish and Kira Takahashi-Trader.

The newcomer class includes two transfers, six freshman and one international athlete.

Gaitan joins the Nittany Lions after a two-year tenure at Maryland. The forward saw action in 34 games as a Terrapin, starting 31, and accumulated 14 goals and 32 points. For her efforts, Gaitan was named to the All-Big Ten Second Team and Big Ten All-Freshman Team in 2024 along with a stint on the 2024 US U21 National Team after being selected for the US U18 National Team in 2023.

Dunn enters the year with a plethora of international experience. The Isle of Man-native was a member of England’s U16, U18 and U21 teams and was a 2025 England U21 team captain at the Junior World Cup. Dunn was a bronze medalist with Team England and a two-time BUCS gold medalist with the University of Nottingham.

Standish comes to Happy Valley after four years at Ohio State. While with the Buckeyes, the Pennsylvania-native compiled 28 start with 43 total appearances and tallied seven points. Standish was named to the Big Ten All-Freshman Team during her redshirt freshman season and is a two-time Academic Big Ten and NFHCA National Academic Squad honoree with three appearances as an Ohio State Scholar Athlete.

The rest of the Penn State newcomers and roster can be found here.

Opening Weekend Recap

The Nittany Lions fell to then-No. 4 Princeton on Sunday afternoon at the Penn State Field Hockey Complex, 1-2.

Cooper Cutchins scored the lone Penn State goal on the afternoon off a rebounded penalty corner sequence from Ella Gaitan and stopped originally by Sienna Dunn. Cutchins’ goal was the second of her career and the first goal that Princeton had given up all year.

The Blue & White had a pair of opportunities to tie up the game late but were unable to convert either penalty corner.

National Recognition

Aby Deverka was named both the Big Ten Defensive Player of the Week and the NFHCA National Defensive Player of the Week thanks to her efforts against Villanova and Delaware.

Deverka is the first Penn State field hockey player this season to earn a Big Ten weekly award and is her third Big Ten weekly honor after earning two Big Ten Freshman of the Week honors in 2024. She is the first Penn State player to earn a Big Ten weekly accolade since Phia Gladieux was named in Big Ten Offensive Player of the Week in late September of 2024. Deverka is the first Nittany Lion to earn Big Ten Defensive Player of the Week distinctions since Anouk Knuvers did so in October of 2023.

Derverka was the first Penn State player to earn a NFHCA weekly accolade since Gladieux was named NFHCA Offensive Player of the Week in late October of 2023. Deverka is the first Nittany Lion ever to earn the NFHCA Defensive Player of the Week distinction.

The junior goalkeeper has had an extremely effective start to her 2026 campaign. In her four games in the cage, Deverka has registered a pair of clean sheets while registering a Big Ten-leading 19 saves. Against the Wildcats, she secured a clean sheet with four saves on four shots on goal against Villanova while facing three penalty corners. While facing the Delaware, Deverka recorded a season-high nine saves against 10 shots on goal against the Blue Hens with five penalty corners headed in her direction.

Offensive Fireworks

Through five games in the 2026 season, Penn State’s offense has shown potential to be one of the best in the Big Ten and in the country.

Sienna Dunn has made her mark as one of the best assisters in the early going of the 2026 campaign. The Isle of Man newcomer’s six assists are tied for the most in the conference and tied for the third-most nationally through five games. Alongside Dunn, Pyle and Cam Standish are both ranked within the top-10 in assists per game in the conference.

Junior transfer Ella Gaitan currently leads the Nittany Lions with four goals on the year after her two-goal outing against Delaware and is top-10 in the Big Ten in goals per game. Purdy follows closely behind Gaitan with a trio of goals from the top of the circle and is within the top-15 in the conference in goals per game.

Penn State’s 25 points scored in the game against Lock Haven tied the school’s all-time single-game points record originally set in 2018 against Michigan State.

The Prince Era

On January 13, 2026, Penn State Field Hockey ushered in a new era with the hiring of Hannah Prince as head coach. Prince came to Happy Valley after an extremely successful four-year run at the helm of the St. Joseph’s Hawks where she compiled a 64-24 record, four consecutive A-10 titles, secured the NFHCA Mid-Atlantic Region Coaching Staff of the Year accolade and was highlighted by a NCAA Runner Up finish in 2024.

Prince was also a successful player at UMass earning A-10 All-Rookie Team and All-Conference First Team recognition as well as NFHCA First Team All-Region honors. Prince, as a member of the United States Field Hockey National Team, won a gold medal at the 2017 Pan American Cup.

Prince has extensive coaching experience, having started her coaching career at New Hampshire, helping lead the team to a pair of America East title games during her three seasons there (2015-17). She left New Hampshire for an initial tenure at Saint Joseph’s as an assistant coach in 2017 and 2018, helping guide the team to the NCAA tournament for the first time in 2017. Prince transitioned to Princeton University in 2019 where she was part of the NFHCA Mid-Atlantic Region Coaching Staff of the Year for the Tigers.

During her transition to Happy Valley, Prince brought along her associate head coach from the Hawks, Mark Wadsley. Along with Wadsley, Prince is joined by assistant coaches Janelle Ward, a former St. Joseph’s goalie during Prince’s tenure, and Ally Hammel from last season’s staff and US Olympian.