GAME DAY: Penn State FH vs. Rutgers & No. 19 Lafayette

A Tale of Two Opponents

Penn State will face its first Big Ten road test against the Rutgers Scarlet Knights.

The Scarlet Knights are led on offense by their trio of double-digit point scorers in Olivia Fraticelli, Laura Loycke and Talia Schenck. Fraticelli leads Rutgers with eight goals on the year while Schenck has a team-high six assists. In the cage, Emily Nicholls has played every minute of the season with 44 saves and a 71% save rate.

Meredith Civico leads the Scarlet Knights along with assistant coaches Ajai Dhadwal and Joey Civico.

The Blue & White will cap off the weekend with its Senior Day versus the Lafayette Leopards with Senior Day festivities happening postgame. Penn State will be honoring Natalie Freeman, Madison Britton, Camryn Standish, Elise DeWan, Sienna Dunn and Emmy McCulley as well as three senior managers.

The Leopards’ offense is led the pair of Lena Thedrian and Katie Gibb. Thedrian leads Lafayette with six goals while Gibb holds the team-high in assists with seven. In total, 12 Leopards have notched a point during 2026. In the cage, Addison Kahn has started every game and has only allowed seven goals with 28 saves.

Lafayette field hockey is helmed by head coach Jennifer Stone along with assistant coaches Meghan Reese and Madison Skeie.

Everybody Love Penn State Field Hockey

After six 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 2,996 fans through the first half of games this season, the best mark in the nation, with an average of 499 per game, the third-best nationally. When looking solely at the Big Ten, Penn State is approximately 50% higher than Maryland for the next closest accumulative attendance and has a 50% higher average attendance than the Terrapins.

National Recognition

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 on the weekend.

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.

Bucking the Bison

Penn State ended its three-game skid with a decisive victory over the Bucknell Bison, 3-0.

Ella Gaitan led the offensive effort with a pair of goals, matching her season and career-high that she set against Delaware earlier this season. Her four points led all players while also being the primary shot taker for the Nittany Lions. Freeman scored her third goal of the season. Dunn secured her conference and nation-leading ninth assist of the year.

The Penn State defense was phenomenal throughout, only allowing four shots, three in the second half, and five penalty corners, all of which came in the second half. Aby Deverka came away from the game with a clean sheet.

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.