8 clutch moments that sent Penn State back to the postseason, ending 2-year drought

With their thrilling shootout victory on Friday night against the Ohio State Buckeyes, the Penn State Nittany Lions field hockey team has clinched a spot in the seven-team Big Ten Tournament for the first time since 2023.

While the bracket itself is far from solidified with nearly two full weeks still remaining on the regular season schedule, Penn State has ended its longest postseason drought in program history by mathematically locking up a top seven finish in the Big Ten conference standings. Their eighth-place finish in the 2024 standings ended what was a 30-year postseason streak.

The fact that they've clinched a conference tournament berth just four games into their eight-game Big Ten schedule speaks to the incredible turnaround orchestrated by first-year head coach Hannah Prince and the new coaching staff in Happy Valley.

Absolutely nobody wanted to be worrying about "scoreboard watching" the rest of the Big Ten or relying on other teams to decide their fate, like we saw heading into the 2025 regular season finale. Now, they don't have to.

They have defied the expectations of the public so far, and the job is not finished, as they pursue their first NCAA tournament berth since 2022, their first Big Ten Tournament victory since 2021, and their first conference tournament championship since 2016.

But let's take a look back at some of the crucial moments that have helped Penn State get to this point, clinching a postseason spot far earlier than even the most optimistic prognosticators would have foreseen.

No. 8 - Redemption against Lafayette

A non-conference win? Yes, for one reason: it was their first comeback victory in two years.

After Penn State fell behind 1-0 in the fourth quarter, Olivia Marthins scored back-to-back goals in a matter of 36 seconds to put the Nittany Lions on top. They ultimately won in overtime with Cam Standish's first goal since transferring from Ohio State.

Before this game, Penn State had lost 16 consecutive games in which they trailed at any point, despite tying or taking the lead in four of those games. They had come oh-so-close to getting over the hump so many times, but that comeback victory had simply continued to elude them.

Lafayette themselves gave the Nittany Lions one of those nightmares in 2025, when the game followed a similar pattern. The Leopards went up 1-0, Penn State took a 2-1 lead, and Lafayette forced overtime late in the fourth quarter. But this time around, it was Penn State that ended up on top.

The 2025 season was Penn State's first season without a single comeback victory since 2015. So what do they do almost immediately after the Lafayette comeback? They rally from behind in the fourth quarter to get the win over Ohio State, clinching their first Big Ten Tournament berth since 2023, which we'll discuss more in a moment.

You can't undersell the importance of Penn State getting the monkey off their back in the win against Lafayette. There's a saying that sometimes all it takes is seeing the ball go through the hoop, or in this case, into the net.

Now they've won both of the games in which they've trailed during their six-game win streak. Go figure, right?

No. 7 - Fourth quarter against Virginia

Another non-conference performance that went a long way toward building confidence.

Starting the year, and the Hannah Prince era, by facing a 3-0 fourth-quarter deficit was exactly what Penn State could not afford to have happen, even if Virginia was ranked No. 5 in the country at the time. But after the first three quarters made it appear like this would be no different from Penn State over the past two seasons, they flipped a switch and mounted a ferocious comeback.

The fact that the Nittany Lions forced overtime with three consecutive goals late in regulation proved that the mentality had changed and indicated this team's potential to be a force. Going down without a fight was not an option, and this effort proved that a game is truly never over until it's over.

The 2025 team almost seemed like they took multiple steps backward whenever they took a step forward, such as starting the season a Big Ten-best 6-0 at home, only to drop their final two home games, two must-win games, as they failed to qualify for the postseason altogether. We compared it at the time to watching last year's New York Mets.

The Virginia comeback offered an early sign of why this team could be different, and everything that's happened since the season opener has added more evidence.

No. 6 - Katelyn Strawser provides unlikely heroics against Rutgers

Now onto the Big Ten conference moments that played a direct role in Penn State punching their postseason ticket.

One of the feel-good stories of the year so far for Penn State is the fact that it was Katelyn Strawser who scored what turned out to be the game winner, the only goal of the afternoon, against Rutgers in a game that was always going to have major postseason implications.

She had appeared in only five of the season's first eight games and had done so off the bench every time. She played limited minutes in each of those five games after seeing her playing time decrease down the stretch in 2025, a season she began as a full-time starter.

We said at the time that if Penn State ended up qualifying for the Big Ten Tournament for the first time since 2023, this goal might be arguably their biggest goal over the past three years. The only argument against that at this point is the fact that the Nittany Lions still haven't lost since mid-September and have produced several additional clutch moments since.

This one proved just how deep Penn State is and how they can beat you in so many different ways with so many different individuals, and it also solidified the unmistakable notion that Prince is capable of finding ways to get the most out of her student-athletes, regardless of their role.

No. 5 - Ella Gaitan's defensive save

As big as Strawser's goal was, the play of the Rutgers game might well have been Ella Gaitan's defensive save, from behind goalkeeper Aby Deverka, that prevented the Scarlet Knights from tying the game on a penalty corner and potentially sending it into overtime.

Gaitan has been a key offensive contributor all year for the Nittany Lions since transferring from Maryland. She is in the top six in goals within the Big Ten and leads Penn State with nine, including four game winners of her own. Bottom line, this team would not be where they are without her having made the immediate impact she has made.

But her biggest impact came on the defensive side, preserving the shutout in a game that, even as only the second game on the Big Ten schedule, had all the makings of a must-win contest.

It is indeed now one of the main reasons why Penn State has clinched, while Rutgers still needs another win to do so themselves.

Penn State has six shutout wins this season, second only to two-time reigning national champions Northwestern in the Big Ten. The defense has improved drastically from where it was a year ago, and that goes far beyond Deverka's obvious improvement across the board (including six-for-six in save opportunities in the Rutgers game).

Honorable mention here goes to defensive anchor Morgan Snyder for her challenge that overturned a would-be Rutgers penalty corner that would have also given the Scarlet Knights the chance to send the game to overtime.

The defense showed up and showed out in this one from start to finish, and that performance earned Penn State their first Big Ten road win since 2023.

No. 4 - Michigan State's waved-off goal

It might not necessarily be considered a "clutch moment" for Penn State, but the heart-in-throat moment of the year for the Nittany Lions came when Michigan State appeared to break a scoreless tie with 20.8 seconds remaining in regulation, a goal that would have given them their first Big Ten win of the year and tied them with Penn State in the conference win column.

Michigan State hadn't even taken a single shot on goal up to that point, so the Spartans scoring 59 minutes and 39.2 seconds into the match to notch an upset win would have been absolutely devastating for the Nittany Lions.

Deverka signaled to the official almost immediately that the shot came off the wrong side of the Spartan attacker's stick, and the goal was indeed not counted, ultimately sending the game to overtime.

We don't want to rag on any of the B1G+ student announcers. We truly appreciate what they all do to make the broadcasts possible. That being said, the difference between the reactions from the Michigan State announcers on that goal-turned-non-goal versus their reactions after the next play on this list was objectively pretty entertaining for Penn State fans.

For those who still make up reasons to complain about Joe Davis calling Dodgers playoff games, you've clearly never subscribed to B1G+ for field hockey. But you know what? We love it. Really.

It also made Penn State's eventual walk-off victory in East Lansing that much more rewarding.

No. 3 - Ella Gaitan makes MSU pay

Now for the eventual victory itself.

Exactly 101.8 seconds after Michigan State celebrated what they thought would be the winning goal for their first victory over Penn State since 2009, Ella Gaitan made them pay.

Penn State took 11 shots (five on goal) during regulation but was unable to convert on any of them. It took just one from Gaitan in overtime to extend Penn State's win streak to four and bring them to 2-0 in road Big Ten games on the year, after going a combined 0-8 on the road in conference play across the 2024 and 2025 seasons.

This was a "gotta have it" game against the Spartans, the one and only team Penn State finished ahead of by placing eighth in both the 2024 and 2025 Big Ten standings.

While a victory over a winless Michigan State team might not stand out on paper, the fact that they avoided the loss in a bona fide trap game absolutely did. Heading into the Ohio State game at 2-1 in Big Ten play, rather than 1-2, was massive from a postseason clinching perspective.

The entire game-winning sequence was well-executed, from Morgan Snyder's aerial pass to Lara Pyle, to Pyle's assist to Gaitan, to Gaitan's game-winning shot itself.

The lack of offensive production from the Nittany Lions during the first 61 minutes was quickly forgotten after the one smooth play that made all the difference.

No. 2 - "13 seconds"

Speaking of Ohio State, the Buckeyes learned from one of the most clutch players in the Big Ten that regulation expires after 60 minutes, not after 59 minutes and 47 seconds.

And with that, we might have officially added the phrase "you cannot leave Olivia Marthins with 13 seconds on the clock" to the infamous "you cannot leave Patrick Mahomes with 13 seconds on the clock" on our short list of phrases that epitomize why a game is never over until it's over.

Penn State looked dead in the water after allowing two quick goals to Ohio State in the fourth quarter, after having possessed a 2-1 lead through the third. Ohio State dominated time of possession and had all the momentum, taking six fourth-quarter shots after taking six in the previous three quarters combined.

Penn State even pulled goalkeeper Aby Deverka from the game for an extra attacker. But the Nittany Lions were still unable to convert on a number of corner opportunities.

Then there were 13 seconds left.

A penalty corner opportunity drawn by Sienna Dunn, shortly after a green card drawn by a gritty play from Cooper Cutchins put Ohio State down one player, changed the trajectory of the game.

Off the corner insert from Ohio State transfer Cam Standish, Ella Gaitan's shot was initially saved, but Marthins was there to recover off the deflection and find the back of the net, leveling the game at three and sending it to overtime with her second goal of the game (and second multi-goal game of the year).

There isn't another player in the Big Ten who can be trusted more in high-pressure, high-leverage situations than Marthins right now, and that was the case a year ago as well.

She scored two overtime game winners as a freshman, most among all Big Ten players, and was tied for the Big Ten lead in goals (four) among those who made no starts in 2025.

Of her 21 shots this season, 18 are shots on goal, and that includes five-for-five against Ohio State. Her eight goals are tied for seventh in the conference, and that's despite coming off the bench in nine of 13 games, including this one. Both of her multi-goal games came in Penn State's comeback victories, which is not a coincidence.

No. 1 - A long time coming for Lara Pyle

Among Penn State players with zero career goals, Lara Pyle has felt for quite some time like she's been due to get her first. Even going back to 2025, it's seemed like a matter of when, not if. And on the night of Friday, October 16, she answered that question in a way that won't soon be forgotten.

The full-time starter's first career goal put Penn State on top 1-0 over Ohio State, but it was ironically the goal that won't officially count toward her goal tally that solidified Penn State's postseason spot – and her own spot on Penn State's long list of 2026 heroic moments.

A lengthy review somewhat controversially determined that Olivia Marthins' goal in the post-overtime shootout would not count. The blurred vision of the replay meant that it could not be determined whether the ball had actually crossed the line before the eight-second clock expired, so the initial call of no goal was unable to be overturned.

As a result, Pyle had a chance to win it in Penn State's fifth and final shootout attempt.

She converted.

What better way to cap off your breakout game?

Honorable mentions, of course, go to Ella Gaitan and Sienna Dunn, who converted the first two shootout opportunities to give Penn State the lead, and to Aby Deverka, who allowed just one Ohio State goal on their four attempts, after she had already matched her season-best effort with nine saves in regulation and overtime.

Thanks to Pyle, the Buckeyes didn't even need to take their fifth attempt before their departure from Happy Valley.

And just like that, now the Nittany Lions get to book their trip to Columbus for the Big Ten Tournament in early November.

Penn State (9-4, 3-1 Big Ten) is set to host the No. 18 Michigan Wolverines (6-7, 1-5 Big Ten) this Sunday afternoon at 12:00 p.m. ET, with live coverage set to be provided by B1G+ from State College.

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