UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — The No. 2 seed Penn State women’s soccer program defeated Quinnipiac 4-1 in the NCAA Championship First Round on Sunday afternoon at Jeffrey Field.
In their first ever matchup with the Bobcats, the Nittany Lions posted a season-high 25 shots and limited Quinnipiac to just four shots, the least PSU has allowed all year.
Four different Nittany Lions scored goals, and senior+ Penelope Hocking assisted on two of them.
Senior Payton Linnehan made a game-high five shots and scored what would be the game-winner in the 50th minute after Quinnipiac tied the match at 1-1 in the 46th.
“The NCAA Tournament is all about surviving and advancing,” Linnehan said. “Every team has an equal chance, and even though we’ve never played this team before, we have a very different style of play. They’re coming at us with everything they have, so every goal is super important.
“We had a little huddle after their score and there was no doubt that we were still going to win this game. So, we came after them immediately, and we got one in the back of the net and then kept getting more.”
Penn State’s four goals are the second-most they have posted since the Nittany Lions beat Illinois 5-0 on Sept. 25 at Jeffrey Field.
With the win, PSU is now 14-4-3 and advances to the NCAA Second Round where they will host No. 7 seed West Virginia (11-4-7) who took down Virginia Tech 2-0 in their first-round match.
Quinnipiac finishes their season 15-3-1.
HOW IT HAPPENED
Penn State looked to make a statement early with three shots in the first ten minutes. At the 20-minute mark, Linnehan…
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