No. 19 Penn State Plays to 1-1 Draw with Rutgers – Penn State

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – Despite an impressive connection for a score in the first five minutes of play, the No. 19 Penn State women’s soccer team battled to a 1-1 draw with the Rutgers Scarlet Knights on Friday evening from Jeffrey Field.

Following Friday night’s result in Happy Valley, the nationally ranked Nittany Lions moved to 9-3-2 overall with a 3-2-1 ledger to open Big Ten play, making Penn State one of seven B1G programs with double digits in the point column through the start to the weekend. Rutgers moved to 8-1-3 overall with a 4-0-2 start to conference competition. In the all-time series dating to PSU’s inaugural varsity season in 1994, the Blue & White continues to lead Rutgers by a 12-9-5 margin and remains unbeaten against the Scarlet Knights over each of the last three fixtures.

The Scarlet Knights entered Friday night’s match receiving votes in the latest United Soccer Coaches poll, marking PSU’s eighth match of the year against a ranked or receiving-votes opponent, as well as the third such match in the last four outings. Penn State’s final five matches of the year feature three opponents who were ranked or receiving votes in this week’s poll, with all three of those tests coming on the road to close the 2024 Big Ten Conference regular season.

Despite the deadlocked final score line, the Nittany Lions statistically dominated Rutgers in practically every element of the match. The Blue & White booked their second-most shots in Big Ten Conference play and logged their third-most shots on goal against a B1G challenger this season, attempting 20 total shots with 10 on-target opportunities in the match. PSU more than doubled Rutgers in both shots, 20-9, and shots on goal, 10-5, working to a 1-1 result against the run of play. The Scarlet Knights narrowly triumphed in the corner kick competition, outpacing PSU by a 5-4 margin. Per usual, Rutgers was particularly egregious in their challenges, picking up 13 fouls in addition to a pair of yellow cards in the final 10 minutes of play.

Redshirt senior forward Kaitlyn MacBean provided the highlight of the match less than five minutes into the contest, notching her single-season career-best 11th goal of the 2024 campaign. MacBean is responsible for 11 of Penn State’s 28 total scores in the program’s 31st varsity season, nearly 40% of all Nittany Lion scores this year. The Excelsior, Minnesota, native matched her career high in shots with eight and surpassed a three-week old…