Penn State's must-win game is becoming much more obvious

The Penn State Field Hockey team is in the midst of a four-game road gauntlet on a schedule that featured 10 total games against teams ranked inside the top 16 of the preseason Penn Monto/NFHCA Division I National Coaches Poll, tied for the most in the country.

Things have not gone nearly as smoothly for the Nittany Lions on the road as they have at home. While they continue to boast an unbeaten 5-0 record at Char Morett-Curtiss Field, the best home mark in the Big Ten, they find themselves 0-6 away from State College, tied for the worst in the conference.

It's easy to pin those struggles on the level of competition that head coach Lisa Bervinchak Love's team has faced on the road, with the current stretch featuring games against No. 6 Syracuse, No. 12 Michigan, and Ohio State; the Buckeyes were only unranked at the time because of the .500+ win percentage requirement. Penn State also faced No. 3 Virginia and No. 10 Maryland on the road earlier in the season.

And of course, the fourth and final game of their current road stretch is scheduled to take place in Evanston on Friday night against reigning national champion and current No. 1 Northwestern.

But they managed to beat then-No. 9 Saint Joseph's, last year's national runners-up, at home, and it's not as if they haven't been competitive elsewhere. They led 2-1 at both Lafayette and Syracuse with under 1:25 to play in regulation but were unable to close the deal in either game.

Lafayette won 3-2 in a shootout following two scoreless overtime periods, while Syracuse didn't need overtime, rallying with two goals in 60 seconds to win by the same score in what was inarguably Penn State's most heartbreaking loss of the season. On the bright side, Penn State's two goals are still tied for the most by any team against the ACC powerhouse all season.

Penn State did manage to avoid a similar fate earlier in the year in their home opener against Delaware, when a Blue Hens goal with 0:43 to play in regulation sent the game to overtime. Senior Ella Jennes delivered the game-winner in the second overtime period.

Despite close losses, improvement evident for Penn State

Even amid some of the late-game struggles and instances of leads turning into losses, Penn State's defense has improved vastly from a year ago, when they allowed 10 combined goals to Michigan and Ohio State; those two teams each scored only two goals this time around.

Sophomore goalkeeper Aby Deverka is fourth in the Big Ten in saves, and her goals allowed average (per 60 minutes) has dropped significantly from 3.17 to 1.96 since her freshman season, reflecting both an improvement in her play and an improved defensive effort from the team as a whole.

The return of grad student Anouk Knuvers following her 2024 injury has certainly played a major part in that uptick, and sophomore Morgan Snyder has continued to perform at a high level, even as she's taken on an increased role on the offensive side. At one point, the team went nine consecutive quarters and overtime periods without allowing a single goal.

Though there may not necessarily be one clear "go-to" offensive player like there was during Phia Gladieux's record-breaking five-year collegiate career, the depth of the offense has emerged as a strength following her graduation.

There have already been 11 goal scorers for Penn State in 2025, their most in any season since 2019, and they reached that mark just nine games into the 17-game season.

It happened with an incredible (even if unintentional) goal from senior Morgan McMenamin against Syracuse to make her the 11th player to join that long list of offensive contributors.

Penn State Field Hockey offensive statistics

But that offensive depth, led by freshman leading scorer Joji Purdy (four goals, one assist) and junior Natalie Freeman (three goals, three assists), was not quite enough to move the needle against the first two conference rivals they faced on their current road trip.

There was still a slight improvement, however. Last year's games were both shutout losses; this year, senior Aubrey Semler scored her second goal of the year, an early second-half goal against Michigan, to keep it competitive, but it wasn't enough to end the Nittany Lions' ongoing search for their first road win of the year.

The shutout loss to Ohio State was Penn State's first such loss of the year, which still marks an improvement by a team that was shut out in half of their eight conference games (specifically, four of their six Big Ten losses) a year ago.

How does Penn State stack up in the Big Ten?

Regardless of their home vs. road performance comparison, what really matters is this: Penn State is sitting at 1-3 in the Big Ten with a shutout win over Michigan State.

Halfway through the Big Ten portion of their schedule, they're seventh out of nine teams in the conference, and after missing the seven-team Big Ten Tournament for the first time since its 1994 inception (excluding 1981, before Penn State was in the conference) in 2024, this year's team will be looking to avoid a similar fate.

We've already seen parity across the Big Ten, and this was not unexpected, given the caliber and competitiveness of the teams in the conference. The conference is home to six of the top 15 teams in the rankings, and five of those teams are slotted between No. 10 and No. 15.

Rutgers beat Ohio State, which beat Maryland, which beat Michigan, which beat Rutgers, so quite frankly, you can rank those four programs however you please and get very little pushback from anybody who doesn't attend one of those four schools.

And let's not forget that Iowa, technically the sixth-place team in the Big Ten standings, also still has just one conference loss and is actually the highest ranked of those five teams in the poll at the moment. They have yet to play any of the other four.

With that in mind, and with how closely matched all of these teams are, it's more likely than not that Big Ten tournament seeding will come down to a tiebreaker in some way, shape, or form.

A Penn State win over Iowa next Friday night can't be completely ruled out, especially with the Hawkeyes set to travel to Happy Valley. But going 2-6 with a win over Iowa probably isn't going to be enough, because the odds of Iowa missing the tournament are slim; it's highly unlikely that they won't beat at least one of the teams Penn State lost to, and that would presumably set up a scenario where Penn State misses out on a tiebreaker.

You could say the same for Penn State's home game against Rutgers too, though with that being the regular season finale, there's sure to be a lot more clarity by then.

Indiana game could be a must-win for Penn State

The real must-win for Penn State is the game against Indiana, a game also scheduled to take place at home on Sunday, October 19.

Last year, Penn State took care of business against both Michigan State and Indiana, but despite finishing 2-6 in the Big Ten, they still ended up only eighth out of nine teams in the standings. Indiana beat Iowa and actually picked up a total of four conference wins to lock themselves in, so because Iowa beat Penn State head-to-head, they got into the tournament at 2-6 while Penn State did not.

This year's Indiana team remains winless in the Big Ten, and that includes a loss to Iowa (actually two, but only one counted toward conference play). They still have a matchup scheduled against winless Michigan State.

Though we know very well that these games are not played on paper, and anybody can beat anybody on any given game day, especially in such a stacked conference, every other Big Ten team remaining on Indiana's schedule should be able to beat the Hoosiers if they play to their potential.

But even if the Hoosiers beat the Spartans and do manage to pull off another upset against Rutgers, Maryland, Ohio State, or Michigan to finish the season with two conference wins, a Penn State win over Indiana should be enough to get them back to the postseason after a disappointing end to the 2024 campaign.

Of course, a Penn State upset over Iowa or Rutgers wouldn't hurt, but unless they can beat both, the only way they could afford a loss to Indiana is if Michigan State upsets Indiana. Otherwise, Indiana would own the head-to-head tiebreaker if both the Hoosiers and Nittany Lions finish 2-6.

It's not a sure thing yet, but based on how things have gone for Penn State and throughout the rest of the conference so far this season, a win over the Hoosiers is shaping up to be the decisive factor when it comes to the Nittany Lions' chances of getting back to the Big Ten tournament for the first time since making their 30th consecutive appearance in 2023.

All four of Penn State's remaining regular season Big Ten contests this year can be streamed live with a subscription to B1G+.