For the second consecutive year, the Penn State Nittany Lions Field Hockey team's season came to an end in the regular season finale, and for the second year in a row, it was a 4-2 Friday night loss at home that slammed the door on their postseason hopes.
On Halloween night against the Rutgers Scarlet Knights, the Nittany Lions made it a one-goal game before halftime with goals from junior Natalie Freeman and senior Ella Jennes after falling behind 3-0 right out of the gate, but they could not complete the comeback.
It was almost a blessing in disguise that the game didn't go to overtime, however, as based on the Big Ten's complicated tiebreaker process, an overtime win, no matter how amazing the comeback, would not have been enough to get them back to the Big Ten tournament for the first time since 2023.
But despite missing out on the Big Ten tournament for the second year in a row, there were plenty of moments throughout the 2025 season that showed just how close this team really was to getting back to the postseason, and had any one of them gone their way, they'd be playing additional field hockey in Bloomington this weekend.
1. Ohio State
This one is by far the most straightforward. Ohio State ended up as the seventh and final team in the Big Ten tournament at 3-5, and they were the only team with a 3-5 record. Had Penn State beaten them, the Nittany Lions would have been 3-5 and earned the No. 7 seed, with the Buckeyes on the outside looking in at 2-6.
Ohio State beat Penn State 2-0, though the game was tied at halftime.
2. Indiana
After Penn State beat Michigan State in a nationally televised game that was delayed because an official was late arriving to Char Morett-Curtiss Field, this was the game we had circled as Penn State's must-win game when it came to getting into the conference tournament.
Penn State took a 1-0 lead over Indiana off a Freeman goal, but they lost 3-1, marking the first time they had scored first, or led at any point, in a home Big Ten game and gone on to lose in over 10 years.
Had Penn State won this game, they would have finished the regular season in a three-way tie with Indiana and Ohio State at 3-5. Because Indiana beat Ohio State, Ohio State beat Penn State, and Penn State would have beaten Indiana, head-to-head results would not have broken the initial three-way tie.
Instead, the tiebreaker would have been conference points (three for a regulation win, two for an overtime win, one for an overtime loss, and none for a regulation loss). Ohio State had 11, Indiana would have had seven (or eight if they had lost to Penn State in overtime), and Penn State would have had eight (or seven had they beaten Indiana in overtime).
Ohio State would have won that tiebreaker, and Penn State would have been awarded the second tiebreaker for the No. 7 seed due to this hypothetical head-to-head win over Indiana.
3. Michigan
Penn State fought back from a 2-0 deficit on the road in Ann Arbor, but Michigan was able to withstand a second-half goal from senior Aubrey Semler and hang on for a 2-1 win.
Had Penn State won that game, they would have finished the regular season in a three-way tie with Michigan and Ohio State at 3-5. Ohio State beat both Penn State and Michigan, so they would have won the first tiebreaker, and with this hypothetical win over Michigan, Penn State would have been awarded the second tiebreaker and earned the No. 7 seed.
4. Rutgers (in regulation)
This one is complicated, because based on the tiebreaker process that we detailed before the game, Penn State actually needed to win this game in regulation, rather than overtime, to advance to the Big Ten tournament.
An overtime win would have left Penn State, Rutgers, and Ohio State tied at 3-5. Rutgers beat Ohio State, Ohio State beat Penn State, and Penn State would have beaten Rutgers, so head-to-head results would not have broken the initial three-way.
Ohio State and Rutgers would have been tied with 11 points each, so Rutgers would have been awarded the first tiebreaker due to their head-to-head win over Ohio State. Ohio State then would have been awarded the second tiebreaker due to their head-to-head win over Penn State, leaving Penn State on the outside looking in.
A regulation win over Rutgers for Penn State, however, would have left the Scarlet Knights with only 10 points, meaning that Ohio State would have been awarded the initial tiebreaker. Penn State then would have been awarded the second tiebreaker and earned the No. 7 seed, since they would have beaten Rutgers head-to-head.
While it wasn't the result they wanted for the second year in a row, there is plenty of optimism moving forward for this team; this is far from a post-mortem or a mere "what-if" look back at 2025.
Their incredible late-season double-overtime shutout win over a high-powered Iowa team, coupled with a group of key contributors set to return in 2026, shows that this team really just might be right on the edge of a return to the postseason after this year's heartbreak.