UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - No. 23 Penn State women’s soccer shut out Indiana, 4-0, to earn the program’s 550th victory and remain undefeated at Jeffrey Field on Friday night. The win was also the Blue & White’s eighth clean sheet of the season.
With the victory, the Nittany Lions closed the regular season with a 9-3-5 record (7-2-3 Big Ten) while the Hoosiers dropped to 4-12-2 (1-10-1 Big Ten) to conclude their season. Penn State awaits its opponent in the quarterfinals of the Big Ten Tournament next week.
The team’s seven Big Ten wins this season are the program’s most since the COVID-altered 2020 season, played in the spring of 2021, when the team won nine conference contests.
Freshman midfielder Emma Johnson notched her first collegiate goal to open the match’s scoring. Redshirt sophomore goalkeeper Kealey Titmuss made another collegiate first with her first minutes between the posts during the second half.
Fellow freshman Ellie Kocher scored her second goal of the season. Both Johnson and Kocher were assisted by senior forward Paige Kalal, who now leads the team with six assists this season. Freshman midfielder Paige Pasinski and junior forward Aubrey Kulpa both tallied assists on those goals as well.
Senior defender Kaelyn Wolfe registered her second score of the season thanks to a beautiful entry pass from senior defender Brooklyn Antonucci, earning her second assist of the 2026 campaign.
The Nittany Lions outshot the Hoosier by a 13-7 margin and finished the match with a 6-3 edge in corner kicks.
FIRST HALF
Penn State dominated possession from the start, not letting Indiana touch the ball for most of the opening action. It took Indiana eight minutes before crossing into the Nittany Lions’ defensive zone.
In the 13th, Kalal found Pasinski between two defenders inside the 18-yard box. The midfielder then passed to a streaking Johnson right in front of the goal, who smashed the ball into the back of the net, securing an early one-goal lead to PSU and the first collegiate for the talented freshman. Indiana used a coach's challenge to infer about a possible offside position, but the call on the field stood.
Halfway through the stanza, Kulpa glazed through the defenders, finding Kalal on the left side of the box. Kalal looked to find Kocher trailing down the left side of the pitch. Kocher somehow scored from a near impossible position as she took the shot from just a few inches beyond the out of bounds line. The Allentown, Pennsylvania native picked the corner in one of Penn State’s most impressive goals of the season.
In the 31st minute, a miscommunication between Indiana’s defender and netminder led to an own goal that extended the PSU lead to 3-0.
The Hoosiers tried to respond, but the early offensive effort from the Nittany Lions paid off as Penn State took the 3-0 lead into the half.
SECOND HALF
Both teams started the second half with different netminders. For the Nittany Lions, Titmuss made her first collegiate appearance. She would make two saves in the second half, including one just 37 seconds into her debut.
Following the early scare, the Blue & White retook possession of the ball and kept the match on its offensive side of the field. Kocher nearly recorded the first brace of her collegiate career, but her shot was just off target at the 48:11 mark.
Penn State continued to earn shots and corner kicks but were unable to extend the lead until the 79th minute of action. After an entry pass from freshman forward Anna Babcock was sent into the Penn State back line, Antonucci lofted a long ball that bounced off the turf right to Wolfe inside the box. Wolfe’s shot was pure and extended the lead to four goals. Indiana’s coaching staff, for the second time in the match, tried to challenge offsides. For the second time, they weren’t successful.
Babcock would record a team-high tying third shot in the 81st minute before the match concluded with a 4-0 result.
SCORING SUMMARY
13’ - PSU 1, IU 0: Emma Johnson (1). Assisted by Paige Kalal (5) and Paige Pasinski (2)
23’ - PSU 2, IU 0: Ellie Kocher (2). Assisted by Paige Kalal (6) and Aubrey Kulpa (5)
31’ - PSU 3, IU 0: Own goal
79’ - PSU 4, IU 0: Kaelyn Wolfe (2). Assisted by Brooklyn Antonucci (2).
UP NEXT
Penn State awaits its opponent at the Big Ten Tournament at Energizer Park in St. Louis. The quarterfinal round will be on Wednesday, November 4 and Thursday, November 5.
FOLLOW THE NITTANY LIONS
Visit GoPSUSports.com for more information on Penn State women’s soccer. Fans can keep up to date with the Nittany Lion women’s soccer team on X and Instagram @PennStateWSOC, in addition to the team’s Facebook page at /PSUWomensSoccer.