In a span of 48 hours this past weekend, Penn State earned their first Big Ten road victory since October 2023, ending a nine-game losing streak in conference road games, and earned their first comeback victory since October 2024, ending a 16-game losing streak in games they had trailed at any point.
While Friday's 1-0 shutout win matters more from a big picture standpoint, in that it has direct implications on their potential postseason standing when it comes to the Big Ten Tournament, Sunday's 3-2 overtime victory over Lafayette was also their first ranked victory of the year, proving that they're more than just "almost" ready to compete with top teams.
They had dropped three straight one-goal games to ranked teams this year (and six straight to ranked teams overall since October 2025), but they have now joined the No. 1 and two-time reigning national champion Northwestern Wildcats as the only other team to beat Lafayette in 2026.
Now the Nittany Lions are 1-1 in Big Ten play and 6-4 overall, after having played, according to Field Hockey Corner, the seventh-hardest schedule in the country through 10 games.
Sitting No. 16 in the RPI, it will be hard to justify leaving Penn State out of the Penn Monto/NFHCA Division I National Coaches Poll this week. They have not yet been ranked since first-year head coach Hannah Prince took over.
Penn State is heating up at the right time, riding a three-game winning streak with six of the regular season's final seven games set to come against Big Ten opponents as they aim to end their two-year postseason drought. They finished eighth out of nine in the Big Ten standings in both 2024 and 2025, after winning two of their eight conference games each year.
Best-case scenario amid Penn State's hot streak
There is a realistic path where Penn State could finish as high as third place in the Big Ten regular season standings. Aside from Northwestern, I don't think there's a single game that you can point to where they'd be obvious underdogs.
Of course, Northwestern hasn't been completely immune from its own hiccups at times this year, but we're trying to give a best-case scenario without being completely unrealistic here. They're 12-0 and the clear No. 1 team for a reason. An upset over Northwestern would be absolutely huge, but don't bet on it.
With that in mind, the first full week of Big Ten action has painted the picture that the conference is basically comprised of two tiers: the undefeated (Northwestern and Maryland) tier, and the "everyone else" tier. None of the teams in the latter have truly separated themselves from the pack.
Iowa is 11-1, and they've technically beaten every opponent they've faced. But they were forced to overcome a fourth-quarter deficit to last-place Michigan State on Sunday, and Penn State shut them out in double overtime a year ago, despite the Hawkeyes boasting the nation's highest-scoring offense at the time. Penn State's defense is also markedly better in 2026, and with a more balanced offense to go along with it.
Indiana, the only team to beat Iowa, also struggled against Michigan State, and they are a three-loss team that also lost to the Hawkeyes in the second half of a doubleheader. Had the Iowa loss come in the game that actually counted toward the conference standings, they'd be nowhere near as comfortable as they are now. As good as they've been, their Big Ten-leading 4-0 conference record is slightly misleading simply because of the non-conference Iowa loss.
None of the other Big Ten teams are above .500 overall. Michigan is the only one with a Big Ten win, that coming by just one goal over Michigan State, and they already have three conference losses. Michigan State is 0-4, and both Rutgers (0-2) and Ohio State (0-3) are also winless.
Michigan, Ohio State, and Michigan State all got completely blown out by Northwestern. Penn State already beat Rutgers, and they played a significantly more competitive game against Maryland than Rutgers did. Penn State's games against Michigan and Ohio State are notably set to take place in Happy Valley.
Finishing 6-2 in the Big Ten is a tall task; it would require Penn State to go unbeaten on the road in conference play, after going 0-8 across 2024 and 2025 combined, and lose only to Northwestern in the regular season finale that, if it gets to that point, could actually be for the Big Ten regular season title.
It is indeed the best-case scenario, rather than the outright most likely scenario. But of the other five teams still on their schedule, Iowa is the only team Penn State trails in the RPI, and Ohio State is the only team they trail (by 0.001 percentage points) in strength of schedule.
So again, nobody other than Northwestern truly stands out as a clear-cut favorite to beat the Nittany Lions right now.
Worst-case scenario amid Penn State's hot streak
The worst-case scenario is that the Rutgers win proves to be more of an anomaly than a true representation of where Penn State stands relative to the rest of the Big Ten, similar to their wins over higher-placed Indiana in 2024 and Iowa in 2025, and they once again come up shy of the conference tournament.
We don't want to get too far ahead of ourselves after the Rutgers win; entering that game, we had Penn State ranked just ahead of Rutgers for the seventh spot in our Big Ten power rankings. While it was Penn State's first road Big Ten win since 2023, we don't necessarily consider it an upset. The more talented team executed better over 60 minutes and won, period.
Both teams should theoretically beat Michigan State, but Michigan State did manage to pull off one conference upset victory in each of 2024 and 2025, despite finishing last in both years.
And given the fact that they were competitive against Iowa, Indiana, and Michigan already this year, losing each game by just one goal, don't discount their ability to pull off another upset later this month.
Even if Penn State handles business and avoids being upset by the Spartans, we've seen in recent years that 2-6 isn't always enough to get into that top seven. Penn State fell victim to that reality in both 2024 and 2025, simply due to the parity of the Big Ten and the fact that anybody can beat anybody.
Additionally, even 3-5 might not have been good enough for the Nittany Lions a year ago. Had they won their regular season finale against Rutgers, but done so in overtime (not regulation), they still would have finished eighth out of nine teams, even with three Big Ten wins, due to the conference's complicated three-way tiebreaker parameters.
This year's Rutgers win was huge, in and of itself. But it also needs to be a sign of things to come for Penn State, rather than an aberration, to truly solidify their breakthrough. And that starts with taking care of business once again this coming Friday night in East Lansing.
Worst-case scenario? Penn State again misses the Big Ten Tournament, just as they did a year ago after falling flat in their final two conference home games, despite a huge win over Iowa that made them a Big Ten-best 6-0 at home at the time.
Penn State's road trip to Michigan State this week is set to be shown live on B1G+ from Ralph Young Field beginning at 3:00 p.m. ET on Friday, October 9. The Nittany Lions are aiming to extend their win streak to four and earn their 19th consecutive win over the Spartans, a streak that dates back to 2010. A win would move them to 2-1 in conference play to begin 2026.
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