5 Nittany Lions who stand to benefit most from Penn State's new head coach

Penn State made the decision not to renew Lisa Bervinchak Love's contract after her 32nd season with the field hockey program and third as the head coach, and just over one month later, they hired Hannah Prince to take her place.

Prince's track record speaks for itself, specifically during her four years as head coach of the Saint Joseph's Hawks. She led the team to a 16-5 record or better in three of those four seasons, including a 2024 season which saw them make it all the way to the national championship game.

After back-to-back postseason misses following a run of 30 consecutive Big Ten tournament appearances dating all the way back to the tournament’s inception, it was time for a change in State College.

Penn State now has a proven leader on the sideline who has consistently shown an ability to elevate the performance of talented young student-athletes throughout her 11-year coaching career across a number of different schools.

Which Nittany Lions stand to benefit most from the Massachusetts graduate’s arrival in Happy Valley?

1. Natalie Freeman

Stacked recruiting classes in recent years have given Penn State a very young roster for the 2026 season, and Natalie Freeman could very well be the lone senior in the starting lineup on opening day.

She is coming off of a breakout season as a junior during which she scored seven goals, tied for most on the team with 2025 senior Ella Jennes, and registered a team-high five assists.

She ranked 11th in the Big Ten in both goals and points (19) during the regular season, and she converted on a higher percentage of her shots (25%) than six of the 10 Big Ten scorers ahead of her. Her shots on goal rate (67.86%) was higher than seven of those 10.

Freeman is in position to take an even bigger step forward in 2026 after solidifying herself as a leader on the offensive side in 2025, and if that happens, it would be no surprise if she emerges as one of the Big Ten's top offensive threats.

2. Joji Purdy

Joji Purdy put up better offensive numbers (six goals and one assist for 13 points) than those of any Penn State freshman since U.S. Olympian Phia Gladieux in 2020. She nearly had a hat-trick in her first home game and proved early on that she is the kind of player who is fully capable of taking over a game.

But it took until the antepenultimate game of the season, a blowout victory over a winless Lock Haven team in non-conference play, for her to make her first career start.

At that point in the year, it pretty much went without saying that she was the Big Ten's leading scorer among those who had not yet started a game.

Despite averaging under 30 minutes per game, Purdy led the team in goals-per-60 minutes average (0.72), total shots (43), and shots on goal (24). She should absolutely be in line for more playing time in 2026, and that should benefit the entire team.

3. Olivia Marthins

Following Purdy's first career start late in the season, it was Olivia Marthins who became the joint-leading scorer in the Big Ten among those who had not started a game, and in her limited playing time as a freshman, she racked up a ton of noteworthy stats.

She finished the season with four goals, and despite making zero starts and averaging 25 minutes per game, her goals-per-60 minutes average (0.56) was second on the team behind Purdy's, illustrating a level of efficiency that should make her even more dangerous if she gets more playing time as a sophomore – which she absolutely should.

She also scored three game-winning goals, good for fifth in the Big Ten behind some of the sport's most recognizable names, and two of those goals were walk-off goals in overtime, including one early in the season against Prince's Hawks.

Marthins was the only player in the Big Ten who recorded two such goals all year, and both of hers came against teams ranked inside the top 11 in the Penn Monto/NFHCA Division I National Coaches Poll.

Sometimes just knowing how to close out games can go a long way. It seems so simple, yet it's easier said than done, and after some of Penn State's close losses and other near misses in 2025, it's good to know they have someone like Marthins who is at her best when the lights shine brightest.

4. Katelyn Strawser

Katelyn Strawser began her sophomore year as a full-time starter and was responsible for delivering the game-winning assist to Marthins in the early-season contest against Saint Joseph's, but she saw her playing time fluctuate as the season progressed.

As a freshman, the forward started just four games but still finished tied for fourth on the team with two goals, and after she added another goal – along with three assists, good for second on the team – in 2025, she is third on the 2026 roster with 10 career points.

As she has shown during both of her seasons thus far, specifically with a clutch game-tying goal late in an eventual victory over Delaware that sparked Penn State's six-game winning streak in 2024, Strawser has immense breakout potential. She is well-positioned to capitalize on it as a junior.

5. The entire defense

I could have completely cheated and said "the entire rest of the team", because I do think everybody will benefit, including the long list of others whom I haven't mentioned.

Forgive me for the motorsport analogy, but for the same reason I don't list every single driver on the Indy 500 entry list as a top candidate to dethrone Alex Palou, I'll keep this one to the defense.

Penn State's defense, all things considered, was a strength in 2025 – when it wanted to be. First and foremost, Aby Deverka was one of the most improved goalkeepers in the Big Ten from her freshman year to her sophomore year, and there's a good reason – several, really – why she's a member of the U-21 Junior U.S. Women's National Team.

But inconsistency plagued the backfield as the season progressed, and while there were some impressive streaks, such as nine consecutive shutout quarters and back-to-back home Big Ten shutout wins which included a double-overtime thriller over a high-powered Iowa offense, there were other suboptimal stints that severely hurt the team's postseason chances.

One such stint took place over the season's final two games. In a stretch of only 45 minutes and 17 seconds, Penn State allowed a total of nine goals to Princeton and Rutgers. That comes out to almost three goals allowed per quarter, and those goals accounted for almost one-quarter of the goals the team allowed all year.

The must-win game against Rutgers saw the Nittany Lions allow three goals in a stretch of under three minutes during the first quarter, effectively ending their chances of qualifying for the Big Ten tournament even before the game really got started.

Speaking of three goals in a quarter, they also let a potential upset victory slip away on the road against Syracuse, with the Orange scoring three goals in the fourth quarter – including two in the final 83 seconds to overcome a 2-1 deficit.

These sorts of things obviously can't happen, and especially with defensive anchor Anouk Knuvers' stellar Penn State career now in the books, coaching is going to matter a lot to get this group to reach their full potential.

The team allowed an average of 2.35 goals per game – 2.23 per 60 minutes – over the course of the 2025 season, which was the second most in the Big Ten. At Saint Joseph's, Prince's Hawks never allowed an average of more than 1.18 – and never more than 1.13 per 60 minutes.

Achieving anything close to that number would mark a huge improvement, and this team absolutely has the talent to reach that level. Now it's about putting everything together and doing so on a much more consistent and reliable basis.

Cooper Cutchins led the team in minutes as a freshman, and Morgan Snyder, who did exactly that in 2024, has already registered more career starts and more career minutes than anybody else on the roster, even with just two years under her belt.

Both of them have demonstrated their offensive capabilities in flashes as well.

Cutchins, whose two defensive saves in the regular season placed her behind only three others in the Big Ten, scored a goal early in the season. Snyder posted two goals, two assists, and a defensive save. Only one other back in the Big Ten had better numbers in all three categories.

Madison Britton also saw a significant increase in playing time as a sophomore and started all but one game, and she too contributed on the offensive side with an assist. With Deverka back in cage for a third year, continuity could be key to getting this defense to achieve what they're capable of achieving.

One notable plus side to the development of the defense already is the fact that their shutout against Iowa, in which they held the top scorer in the country to just one shot on goal in eight attempts, came despite Knuvers being out. That game showed everything this young core is capable of and more, and in a conference as tight as the Big Ten, those kinds of performances can – and usually do – make all of the difference.

Reason for optimism as Penn State moves forward

There are plenty of other high-upside players on this team who have what it takes to thrive under Prince's leadership.

Lara Pyle and Brooke Weaver are two others who stood out as freshmen in 2025. Both were starters for a majority of the season, and after they each recorded an assist, it would not be surprising if either one – or both – of them were to find the back of the cage for the first time as sophomores.

Bottom line, it's going to take a strong effort from everybody, and everybody in the locker room knows it. This is a team that had 15 different point scorers, the most for any Penn State team since 2018, and 11 different goal scorers, the most for any Penn State team since 2019, in 2025. Nine of those individuals are slated to return in 2026.

Now with a proven program-builder in Hannah Prince, along with another new arrival in associate head coach Mark Wadsley, pushing the team forward, Penn State has more than potential, and they even have more than a blueprint. They possess a roadmap to success, and now it's about following that roadmap and executing at the highest possible level.