STATE COLLEGE — Penn State women’s soccer advanced to the fourth round of the NCAA tournament on Sunday, Nov. 24.
The Nittany Lions battled out a win against No. 5-seeded TCU in the second round and then handled a surprising matchup against No. 8-seeded Vanderbilt in the third round to move onto the quarterfinals. Both games took place in Tallahassee, Florida
On Friday, Nov. 22, Penn State played its first game of the weekend. Despite being the higher seed, TCU was ranked well above Penn State in the final NCAA Top 25. The Horned Frogs sat at No. 7 while the Nittany Lions were No. 22.
At the start of the game, the ranking looked to be correct as TCU dominated the first half. Big 12 Forward of the Year, Bella Diorio and Midfielder of the Year, Oli Pena, lead the way for the Horned Frogs.
The Nittany Lions bent but did not break in the first half, and despite TCU having four times the amount of shots on goal, it was still tied 0-0 going into the first break.
Head coach Erica Dambach worked her magic during the halftime break, though, and Penn State came out of the gate flying. Just one minute in, leading scorer Kaitlyn MacBean slotted a shot past the TCU keeper.
After a lengthy video review, the goal was ruled offside, but 30 seconds later MacBean scored again on an eerily similar buildup. This time it was ruled a good goal, and the Nittany Lions took a 1-0 lead.
With over 40 minutes still to play, Penn State had a lot of game in front of them against a very good team. Defenders Ginger Fontenot and Mieke Schiemann dominated, though. Ball after ball was eaten up by the backline, the announcers started calling the Penn State back three the Berlin Wall because Schiemann hails from Berlin.
After the win, the Nittany Lions awaited the No. 1 Florida State against No. 8 Vanderbilt game. The Commodores eventually took it in a penalty shootout, setting the stage for Sunday’s game.
Early in the third-round match, Vanderbilt took control. The Commodores looked better in the 3-5-2 than Penn State and scored in the eighth minute because of it.
Up 1-0, Vanderbilt could not find the second goal, though, and let the Nittany Lions do what they do best, take over the game.
As the time ticked down in the first half Penn State saw a few chances in front of goal but could not finish. This changed with less than four minutes on the clock when Natalie Wilson found Aubrey Kulpa on a run. Kulpa took a touch and fired a shot that finished perfectly in the top right corner to knot the game at 1-1.
The second half started the same way the first ended, with Penn State all over the Commodores. In the 59th minute, the Nittany Lions finally found the game winner. Wilson found space over 25 yards from goal and fired a shot. The ball traveled directly to the top right of the net to make it 2-1.
Less than 10 minutes later, Rowan Lapi doubled the Penn State lead from the penalty spot after a Vanderbilt handball.
Similar to the TCU game, Penn State’s depth and backline took over and saw the remainder of the game out. The 3-1 victory meant the second straight year in the quarterfinals of the NCAA tournament.
Penn State will take on No. 2-seeded North Carolina in Chapel Hill with a chance to make the program’s sixth-ever College Cup. The date of the game will either be Friday, Nov. 29, or Saturday, Nov. 30, and the time is still to be determined.
The College Cup is the college soccer edition of the final four and will be held in Cary, North Carolina, as it typically is.
