Women’s Sports Shine in the 2026 Fall Semester

Field hockey has consistently made headlines under the direction of first-year head coach Hannah Prince. The program secured ranked wins over No. 1 Northwestern, No. 13 Indiana, No. 18 Michigan and No. 19 Lafayette, and tripled its Big Ten win total from last season to six. The team had its first 12-win season since 2022, notching its longest win streak since 2013 (eight games) with a shutout against No. 13 Indiana. Eight of the 12 wins were shutouts, the program’s most in a season since 2022.

On October 30, Penn State secured its first win over a No. 1-ranked team since 2002, and Prince’s first ever, shutting out Northwestern, 2-0. Junior goalkeeper Aby Deverka surpassed 200 career saves, with seven saves against the Wildcats to bring her total to 205.

On offense, junior Ella Gaitan tallied Penn State’s first 25-point season since Olympian Phia Gladieux, and graduate student Sienna Dunn ranks among the Big Ten’s top three with 14 assists.

The Nittany Lions earned four Big Ten weekly awards (Gaitan, Offensive Player of the Week; Deverka (x2) and Cam Standish, Defensive Player of the Week), and Deverka was also named NFHCA Defensive Player of the Week twice this season. She is the first Nittany Lion ever to earn this distinction at the national level, the first player in Penn State history to earn National Player of the Week honors twice in one season, and the first player since Northwestern’s Annabel Skubisz in 2024 to win more than one NFHCA Defensive Player of the Week award in a single season.

Ranked No. 8 in the NCAA RPI entering Wednesday, the team earned its highest regular-season RPI finish since 2022. After the 2026 regular season, Penn State earned seven Big Ten postseason honors. Dunn and Gaitan were named to the All-Big Ten First Team, Olivia Marthins and Lara Pyle were named to the All-Big Ten Second Team, Lilly Holmes and Kira Takahashi-Trader were selected for the Big Ten All-Freshman Team, and Emmy McCulley won the Big Ten Sportsmanship Award for Penn State.

Women’s soccer, ranked No. 21 in the latest United Soccer Coaches poll, finished the regular season unbeaten at home (6-0-3). The program holds the No. 6 seed in the Big Ten Tournament entering Thursday night after going 7-2-3 in conference play, and its seven Big Ten wins are the most in a single year since the 2020 season (played in the spring of 2021 due to the pandemic). Its 9-3-5 overall record gives the program its highest winning percentage (.676) since 2023 (.783). The team is on a four-match unbeaten streak dating back to October 11 (3-0-1) and has lost only once since September 10. In that span, the Nittany Lions are 7-1-3, including a 2-1 win over No. 5 Michigan State on October 22. 

The shutouts just kept coming this season, with eight total and six against Big Ten foes. On August 27, head coach Erica Dambach earned her 300th win at Penn State in a 5-0 victory against Bucknell, cementing her status as one of the greatest coaches in Penn State and NCAA women’s soccer history. Redshirt freshman Nicole Crane recorded the 26th hat trick in Penn State history in a 6-0 blanking of Brown. In a 1-0 win over USC on September 27, Penn State held a Big Ten opponent without a shot on goal for the first time since 2000. The program earned its 550th win against Indiana on October 30, concluding its regular season in the cleanest fashion, 4-0.

Crane and junior Aubrey Kulpa were each named Big Ten Offensive Player of the Week, redshirt senior Mackenzie Gress was named Big Ten Goalkeeper of the Week, junior Bella Ayscue earned honorable mention on TopDrawerSoccer’s National Team of the Week, and freshman Ellie Kocher was named Big Ten Freshman of the Week. At the end of the regular season, six Nittany Lions were named to All-Big Ten teams, the program’s most since it also had six in 2019. Kulpa was a First Team All-Big Ten selection, senior Paige Kalal and redshirt senior Kayleigh Herr were Second Team All-Big Ten selections, graduate student Lily Boyden was a Third Team All-Big Ten selection, and Kocher and Paige Pasinski were All-Freshman Team selections. 

Women’s volleyball is ranked No. 11 with a 17-5 record (9-3 Big Ten) entering the final stretch of the regular season, having played three nonconference matches at iconic venues: an exhibition tournament at AT&T Stadium, the first-ever volleyball match at Wrigley Field and a return to the Palestra for the first time in 41 years. 

Coached by Katie Schumacher-Cawley, the program notched five wins over nationally ranked opponents, including No. 4 Stanford at the Palestra. Three of these wins came in the past two weeks, including victories over No. 10 Oregon and No. 11 Purdue at Rec Hall. With a win over Ohio State on October 29, the Nittany Lions earned the program’s 1,500th win, becoming only the second Division I program to reach that milestone after Nebraska in 2025. Penn State also set a record of its own this season, serving 15 aces in a win over High Point, the most in program history in a five-set match during the 25-point rally scoring era.

Senior Kennedy Martin was named AVCA Division I National Player of the Week for the fourth time in her career, as well as Big Ten Player of the Week, and she currently leads the nation with 1,949 career kills. Redshirt senior Alexis Stucky was named Big Ten Setter of the Week after tallying her 100th career ace against Indiana. She previously earned the SEC’s version of the award five times.

Women’s cross country, led by head coach John Gondak, made an explosive impression right out of the gate, beginning the 2026 season with a team title at the Dolan Duals, hosted by Lock Haven University, where Penn State swept the men’s and women’s races. At Penn State’s own Blue and White Golf Courses, the team finished second in the 6K race at the Harry Groves Spiked Shoe Invitational, with all five scorers in the top 11, leaving the Nittany Lions (36 points) only four points behind first-place Syracuse (32). Freshman Vivian Kipruto led Penn State in fourth place, and following an impressive second-place finish in her collegiate debut, earned herself Big Ten Women’s Freshman of the Week honors.

Penn State placed third at the Big Ten Championships with 92 points, finishing ahead of No. 25 Minnesota and No. 29 Washington and earning the program’s 14th top-three finish at the meet. Graduate student Katie Dallas, senior Claire Zubey and graduate student Charlotte Costich were named to the All-Big Ten Second Team, matching the second-most honorees in program history for the second straight season. On Wednesday, junior Ella White was named a recipient of the Big Ten Sportsmanship Award, honoring her sportsmanship and supportiveness throughout the season.