Penn State cements incredible turnaround, snaps postseason drought with epic comeback

Just as there will be no Los Angeles Dodgers World Series three-peat this year, there will be no Penn State Nittany Lions field hockey regular season elimination three-peat either.

For the first time since 2023, the Nittany Lions have punched their ticket to the Big Ten Tournament. And further cementing their incredible turnaround in year number one under former Saint Joseph's head coach Hannah Prince, they've done it after playing just four out of eight games on their conference schedule in 2026, clinching a spot with two full weeks yet to play.

Friday's thrilling shootout victory in Happy Valley over the Ohio State Buckeyes moved the Nittany Lions to 9-4 overall and 3-1 in Big Ten play, with four games remaining on the regular season schedule.

Penn State secures tournament berth, four games early

With Ohio State dropping to 0-5, Michigan dropping to 1-5 with a loss to Rutgers, and Michigan State dropping to 0-6 with a loss to No. 1 Maryland on the same night, Penn State has no possible way of falling outside of a top seven position required to compete in the conference tournament in November.

Penn State can lose no more than five total conference games, and Ohio State and Michigan still have to play each other, guaranteeing that at least one will join Michigan State with at least six conference losses and thus guaranteeing that Penn State will finish the season ahead of at least two teams, regardless of what any of the other Big Ten game results might be.

They're in, and now it's all about seeding over these next two weeks and then ultimately execution come the first week of November. Penn State has not won a Big Ten Tournament game since 2021.

Other teams locked into Big Ten postseason play include Maryland (4-0), Northwestern (5-0), Indiana (4-1), and Iowa (3-2). Rutgers, sitting at 2-2, can clinch with any additional win, having now won back-to-back games after their loss to the Nittany Lions.

Defying expectations, and doing so in style

After a notable Penn State outlet declared during the offseason that "it'll take a few years before they can get back to [the Big Ten Tournament]", adding that they "must dwell on the lower end of Penn State's program future outlooks", Friday night's victory was vindication for a field hockey team that has been on the doorstep but simply been unable to get over the hump in past years.

Predicting a struggle is one thing, especially after back-to-back disappointing endings. But outright declaring that they must dwell on the lower end? Come on, now.

A few years? Plural? It took all of four Big Ten games. That's exactly half of the conference schedule.

And it couldn't have happened on a better night, one that embodied the meaning of a team victory and featured clutch efforts across the board in a game that was televised nationally on Big Ten Network.

Lara Pyle delivers

Given some of her shots and scoring opportunities, even going back to the second half of 2025, it's felt for a while like it was a matter of when, not if, sophomore Lara Pyle would find the back of the net. Friday night's game answered that question early – and, as things turned out, the floodgates opened.

Pyle, who entered the game with five career assists, put the Nittany Lions up 1-0 with her first career goal in the second quarter, doing so unassisted.

On the stat sheet, Pyle might have only been credited with one goal. But after Ella Gaitan and Sienna Dunn converted on their opportunities in the shootout, Pyle scored the clincher in Penn State's fifth and final attempt to seal a 3-1 advantage, one that meant Ohio State had no need to take their fifth attempt before departing from State College.

Penn State had not been in a shootout since September 2025 at Lafayette, when they fell 3-2. They are now 3-1 in overtime games this year, with the only loss being a season-opening defeat to a top-five Virginia team, after they rallied from down 3-0 to force the extra period.

Defense shines, overcomes fourth-quarter woes

The three goals surrendered don't tell anything close to the full story about the strength of Penn State's defense in this game. Ohio State put Penn State under more pressure than any other team they've faced this season, taking 16 shots (12 on goal).

Their two goals within a span of 3:16 during the fourth quarter shifted the momentum away from Penn State with just 5:21 to play, but the Nittany Lions buckled down and fought back.

For a team that didn't earn a single comeback victory during the 2025 season, they have completely flipped the script and given a new meaning to the phrase "it's not over until it's over".

Ohio State took four shots to Penn State's one in overtime, at one point forcing three straight penalty corners. Goalkeeper Aby Deverka, whose nine saves matched a season-high to keep her save percentage at exactly 75% this season, saved two of them to keep the Nittany Lions alive.

It also seemed like Madison Britton was intercepting passes almost every time Ohio State took possession in overtime. She is someone whose contributions don't always show up on the stat sheet, but her performance was critical in deciding the outcome of this game.

Penn State's defense had been historically good leading into this game, shutting out its opponents in 22 of the past 23 quarters and preventing opposing offenses from registering even a single shot on goal in 10 straight. Despite dealing with some fourth-quarter adversity, they stepped up again on Friday night, continuing what has been a resurgent season for that particular unit.

Olivia Marthins has ice in her veins

We have seen this so many times over the past 14 months, and she's still only a sophomore. Olivia Marthins is at her best when the lights shine brightest and when the moments matter the most.

She had two game-winning goals in overtime or double overtime as a freshman, more than anybody in the Big Ten, and was tied for the Big Ten lead in goals among players who did not start a game.

In only her second career start, she scored two goals in a comeback victory against Lafayette a few weeks ago, a victory which was the team's first comeback victory since 2024, and her performance on Friday night against Ohio State might have been her best yet.

After scoring the go-ahead goal to make it 2-1, Marthins responded to Ohio State's two quick fourth-quarter goals with her second. Penn State appeared to be well on their way to a heartbreaking defeat, but with just 13 seconds remaining in regulation, she forced overtime.

"13 seconds" are two words you are to never utter to Buffalo Bills fans. Now they're two words you probably shouldn't utter to Ohio State fans.

Not going to lie; Buckeyes had them for the first 59:47.

Cooper Cutchins and Sienna Dunn set up the opportunity by drawing a green card and a penalty corner, respectively, in the closing seconds. With Penn State having pulled Deverka from goal to give them an extra attacker, it was effectively a two-person advantage. They capitalized.

Cam Standish, who transferred from Ohio State after the 2025 season, inserted the ball on the corner opportunity. Ella Gaitan's shot was deflected off of a Buckeyes save to Marthins, who leveled the game at three.

There is something to be said about not letting the moment become too big and knowing how to deliver under the highest levels of pressure. You'd be hard-pressed to find somebody doing that better than No. 10 in blue and white right now.

And we're still convinced her shootout non-goal should have counted, for whatever that's worth; the replay review was simply not clear enough to indicate whether the ball was on the line when the clock hit zero. She's up to eight goals this season despite starting only four times and is turning into one of the best pure scorers in the Big Ten.

Penn State's exclusion from the national poll has aged poorly

We'll leave you with this, because it seems to be a recurring theme as of late. The NFHCA can keep ignoring this team in their weekly poll, a poll that at this point seems to do very little other than rank teams based on expectations of performance, rather than actual performance.

We've already outlined countless examples of questions we have about this process, and like we said a few weeks ago, unless there's a Field Hockey Red Zone channel we don't know about, there is approximately a 0% chance that every single voter watches every single game.

No more excuses though, because at least this one was nationally televised, right?

Penn State is legit, and there are no two ways around that, whether they're ranked or not. Who knows? Maybe they'll go down as the greatest "unranked" team in the poll era (1998 to present). Make it six consecutive victories.

The Nittany Lions are slated to take on Michigan this Sunday afternoon in Happy Valley, with live coverage set to be provided by B1G+ starting at 12:00 p.m. ET. The Wolverines, despite being 1-5 in Big Ten play, are ranked No. 18.

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