No. 22 Nittany Lions Set for NCAA Second Round Against No. 7 TCU in Tallahassee
Penn State continues 30th consecutive NCAA Tournament Run against Horned Frogs in North Florida
NCAA Tournament Second Round | #22 Penn State vs. #7 TCU
13-6-3 | 5-4-2 B1G
17-3-2 | 9-0-2 Big 12
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Fresh off the most dominant offensive performance in program history, the fourth-seeded and 22nd-ranked Penn State women's soccer team continues its run through the 2024 NCAA Division I Women's Soccer Championships with a second-round appointment against the fifth-seeded and seventh-ranked TCU Horned Frogs. Kickoff from the Seminole Soccer Complex on the campus of Florida State University is scheduled for 2 p.m. (ET) on Friday, November 22, with the match set to stream live to a worldwide audience of authenticated subscribers via ESPN+ and the ESPN app.
Follow the Action
Fans interested in attending the second round of the 2024 NCAA Tournament in Tallahassee are invited to click here to purchase tickets. Click the link here to access the NCAA Tournament interactive bracket. For fans of the Nittany Lions unable to attend Friday’s contest against TCU on the campus of Florida State, the match will stream live to a worldwide audience of authenticated subscribers via ESPN+ and the ESPN app on connected devices at the link here. Ariya Massoudi and Trevor DeGroot will call the action live from the Seminole Soccer Complex press box. Live stats provided by the Florida State University and National Collegiate Athletic Association will be available on the Penn State women’s soccer schedule webpage on GoPSUsports.com on the day of the match.
KICKIN’ IT
Penn State opened the NCAA Tournament with a victory for the 16th consecutive season last Saturday, November 16, as the Nittany Lions extended the longest active opening round win streak in Division I women's soccer alongside Florida State. The Blue & White registered a dominant 8-1 victory over the Coastal Athletic Association champion Stony Brook Seawolves at home on Jeffrey Field, matching the program's largest NCAA Tournament margin of victory all-time. Penn State’s offensive output generated a historic performance, with the Nittany Lions amassing their most goals against an NCAA Division I opponent since an 8-0 victory over the Iowa Hawkeyes in Big Ten Conference play on October 9, 2005, cementing the highest-scoring performance against a DI challenger under the direction of 18th-year head coach Erica Dambach. The Blue & White finished their dominant performance with 11 total assists on the night, setting a single match assist record in the process.
On an individual basis, the Nittany Lions called on 11 different student-athletes to deliver eight goals and a historic 11-assist performance overall, amounting to 27 total points to additionally surpass the program’s all-time single match point record. PSU's 27-point total moved past a 26-point effort against Bucknell on September 25, 2001, a 9-2 victory in regular season competition. PSU saw multi-goal efforts from graduate forward Rebecca Cooke and freshman forward Aubrey Kulpa, with single-goal outings coming for redshirt senior forward Kaitlyn MacBean, freshman midfielder Katie Scott, freshman defender Bella Ayscue and redshirt junior midfielder Julia Raich. Ayscue and Scott both booked their first collegiate goals, while Kulpa matched her season and career highs in the process.
In the assist column, the Blue & White called on eight different student-athletes to muster the historic 11-assist effort. Ayscue paired her first collegiate goal with a pair of assists on the night, while redshirt senior midfielder Olivia Damico and graduate midfielder Natalie Wilson both set career highs in assists with two. Senior midfielder Jordan Fusco improved on her career-best season in the passing game with her 11th dish of the campaign, while junior forward Amelia White, sophomore defender Kaelyn Wolfe and Raich added feeds of their own.
FIRST ROUND FUN!
Penn State's dominant opening round victory over Stony Brook headlined the 32 NCAA Tournament first round matches across the country, with the Nittany Lions booking the most dominant offensive output in terms of total goals, assists and points. The Nittany Lions lead the 64-team NCAA Tournament field with 11 assists and 27 points thus far, matching the national lead in total goals with eight, joining Florida State, Duke and North Carolina. The Nittany Lions amassed the highest scoring output in a single match in program history last Saturday against Stony Brook, with the 27-point outing outpacing a 26-point showing against the Bucknell Bison in regular season competition on September 25, 2001, a 9-2 Nittany Lion victory on Jeffrey Field.
HOW SWEET IT… CAN BE
The Nittany Lions enter the 2024 NCAA Tournament tied with reigning national champion Florida State for the longest active Sweet 16 streak in women's college soccer, with the Blue & White joining the Seminoles in the third round of the tournament in every season since the 2017 campaign. PSU and FSU have advanced to the third round of the NCAA Tournament in each of the last seven events. Penn State also boasts one of the longest streaks of NCAA Tournament appearances with at least one national postseason victory, as PSU has won each of the program's last 16 opening round tests dating to their last first-round defeat in the 2008 tournament. Only Florida State boasts a longer opening round win streak, with the Seminoles advancing in every tournament since 2004.
Next Up: #7 TCU
TESTING TCU
Led by 13-year head coach Eric Bell, the TCU Horned Frogs head into Friday afternoon's marquee matchup boasting an impressive 17-3-2 overall record paired with a Big 12 Conference regular season championship in addition to a Big 12 Tournament final appearance. The Horned Frogs picked up an at-large selection from the NCAA selection committee, their first bid to the national postseason since a scrappy Sweet 16 campaign in 2022. TCU notched a hard-fought 1-0 victory over Southland Conference champion Stephen F. Austin at home in Fort Worth last weekend. The Horned Frogs utilized a penalty kick opportunity to notch the match-winning score, with Caroline Kelly converting in the 57th. Individually, TCU is led by a pair of high-octane scorers in Seven Castain and Caroline Kelly, who both own 13 goals this year, while Megan Plaschko owns 44 saves in goal with five shutouts in 2024.
STORY OF THE SERIES
The Nittany Lions and Horned Frogs get set to square off for the second time ever, as well as the second time in the last two years in Friday afternoon's NCAA Second Round matinee. Penn State took the only prior meeting of the two squads by a 1-0 margin on Jeffrey Field last year. Penn State head coach Erica Dambach and TCU head coach Eric Bell get set to meet for the second time in their respective careers this Friday in Tallahassee. Dambach and Bell both worked as assistant coaches together for a brief stint at Florida State in the spring of 2006, with Dambach leaving to become the head coach at Harvard while Bell continued and became associate head coach at FSU. Last season's meeting in University Park featured a scoreless affair for the first 76 minutes, with the Nittany Lions calling on Kaitlyn MacBean for a header goal off a corner to seal the contest in the 77th.
Follow the Nittany Lions
Visit GoPSUSports.com for more information on Penn State women’s soccer. Fans can keep up to date with the Nittany Lion women’s soccer team on X and Instagram @PennStateWSOC, in addition to the team’s Facebook page at /PSUWomensSoccer.