KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Penn State women’s soccer graduate forward Kaitlyn MacBean secured United Soccer Coaches Forward to Watch accolades in a preseason release by the organization on Tuesday morning.
The Excelsior, Minnesota, native MacBean joins a pair of additional Nittany Lions who had their names selected as United Soccer Coaches Players to Watch earlier this summer, with the veteran forward joining a pair of defenders in sophomore Bella Ayscue and junior Kaelyn Wolfe as preseason honorees from the organization. MacBean becomes Penn State’s first United Soccer Coaches Forward to Watch since Rebecca Cooke joined the Nittany Lions ahead of the 2023 campaign, with the Blue & White mustering their most preseason individual honorees in recent memory. Penn State last secured multiple United Soccer Coaches Player to Watch accolades in 2022, when Penelope Hocking and Ally Schlegel each found their names on the preseason list ahead of PSU’s B1G Tournament Championship campaign.
MacBean’s 2024 season in the Blue & White was by far her most statistically significant since joining the Penn State program as a true freshman in 2020. Her single-season career-best 34-point outburst a year ago marked the highest scoring individual season by a Nittany Lion since Maya Hayes turned in an astounding 70-point campaign in 2013. MacBean also managed to muster the third-longest goal scoring streak in Penn State history in a span from the 2023 and 2024 seasons. The veteran attacking player started all 25 fixtures for PSU in their run to the NCAA Tournament National Quarterfinals last season, helping anchor the Nittany Lions with the third-most points in the B1G and 15th-most nationally.
Over her storied career in Happy Valley, MacBean has picked up a wide array of individual accolades celebrating her tremendous achievements in Central Pennsylvania. Last year, she became the 22nd woman in Penn State program history to be named a United Soccer Coaches All-American, earning the program’s first Fourth Team honor in the process. She also extended PSU’s streak of 31 consecutive seasons with at least one First Team All-Big Ten Conference selection, becoming the program’s 82nd First Team honoree all-time. MacBean is a two-time All-Big Ten award winner, picking up third team laurels in 2023, and has also been named a Big Ten All-Freshman Team selection dating to her first full year of competition in 2022.
Last season, the Nittany Lions advanced to the National Quarterfinals for the second year in a row, extended the nation’s longest streak of consecutive Sweet 16 appearances to eight-straight, secured the program’s 30th consecutive NCAA Tournament bid and booked the program’s 31st consecutive season with at least 10 victories, the second-longest stretch of that nature in women’s college soccer. The Blue & White return six starters from last year’s Elite Eight run, including goalkeeper Mackenzie Gress, defenders Kayleigh Herr and Bella Ayscue, midfielder Molly Martin, and forwards MacBean and Amelia White. Penn State additionally boasts the nation’s fifth-ranked recruiting class and strongest signing group in the Big Ten Conference per TopDrawerSoccer’s July release. With MacBean headlining the front of the Nittany Lion XI, PSU will open its 2025 season in two days’ time, with a 7 p.m. (ET) kickoff scheduled against the Duke Blue Devils on Thursday, August 14, from Koskinen Stadium in Durham, North Carolina.
ABOUT UNITED SOCCER COACHES
Founded in 1941 and based in Kansas City, Missouri, United Soccer Coaches has grown into the world’s largest soccer coaches’ organization that serves members at every level of the game. United Soccer Coaches works every day to inspire coaches and ignite their passion for the game, so they pass it on to players and others in the soccer community. The United Soccer Coaches preseason positional watch lists are compiled and released by the Division I All-America Committee to promote college soccer leading up to the official start date for the regular season later this month.
“Entering the 2025 season, these honorees represent some of the best at their positions,” said Ralph Polson, Senior College All-America Administrator. “As preseason training opens, we are pleased to recognize these outstanding student-athletes from our member schools. I would like to thank Jennifer Rockwood, DI Women’s All-America Chair and her committee for their efforts in compiling these lists.”
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.
The 2025 Penn State women's soccer season is presented by Highmark.