MacBean Collects United Soccer Coaches Scholar All-America Distinction – Penn State

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Penn State women’s soccer redshirt senior forward Kaitlyn MacBean capped off her decorated collegiate career with recognition as a United Soccer Coaches First Team Scholar All-American following the organization’s release Thursday.

The Excelsior, Minnesota, native paired a stellar semester in the classroom with one of the most statistically significant campaigns by a Nittany Lion forward in recent memory. MacBean led the way for the Blue & White in the 2024 campaign with a 34-point season comprised of 16 goals and two assists. She ranked prominently in both the Big Ten Conference and Division I in multiple statistical categories, highlighted by the second-most match-winning goals in the B1G and seventh-most in the nation with six tallies going into the book as decisive scores. Her 34 total points in 2024 made her the highest-scoring student-athlete at PSU in over a decade. MacBean will graduate from the Pennsylvania State University’s College of Health and Human Development with a Bachelor of Science degree in Biobehavioral Health later this weekend.

Penn State saw a student-athlete appear on the United Soccer Coaches Scholar All-America First Team for the fourth season in a row, with MacBean joining PSU alumnae Sam Coffey, Ally Schlegel and Cori Dyke’s appearances from 2021 to 2023. MacBean secured the 19th First Team appearance in Nittany Lion program history, joining program legends such as Christie Welsh, Emily Oleksiuk and Raquel Rodriguez on that list. MacBean becomes the 28th United Soccer Coaches Scholar All-American at Penn State all-time since Oleksiuk first earned those honors in 2001. MacBean supplemented her impressive list of postseason academic accolades, with Thursday’s announcement joining distinction as an Academic All-Big Ten athlete as well as a College Sports Communicators Academic All-District choice.

Penn State was one of five Big Ten Conference member institutions to land a student-athlete on the United Soccer Coaches Scholar All-America First Team, with MacBean joining UCLA’s Lilly Reale, Michigan State’s Justina Gaynor, Minnesota’s Khyah Harper and National Scholar Player of the Year Kailyn Dudukovich from Ohio State. The Big Ten saw nine student-athletes appear on the organization’s trio of Scholar All-America Teams, with additional honorees on the Second and Third Team representing Minnesota, UCLA, Nebraska and Washington.

Student-athletes on this year’s Scholar All-America Teams will…