The Penn State Nittany Lions field hockey team narrowly missed out on what would have been the program's first NCAA Division I Field Hockey Tournament appearance since 2022.
Their name was one of the two, along with Wake Forest, referenced on Selection Sunday as being "close" to getting into the 18-team championship bracket.
It was a disappointing end to a season that still featured far more positives than negatives in Happy Valley, including the program's first win over a No. 1 team in 24 years. The team went 12-5, with a 6-2 record in Big Ten play, in their first regular season under head coach Hannah Prince, and their Big Ten Tournament appearance was their first since 2023.
The Nittany Lions ultimately fell in the opening round of the conference tournament by a score of 2-1 to the Iowa Hawkeyes, which had also been the only team to beat them during their Big Ten-best 8-1 stretch during the month of October, and that left their NCAA fate in the hands of the selection committee.
Why Penn State missed the NCAA Field Hockey Tournament
At the end of the day, the committee simply did not believe they did enough to claim one of the eight at-large bids, even if there were plenty of reasons that could have been used to justify a selection.
But one of the reasons (or, more specifically, two of the reasons) why that snub came to fruition came down to the fact that two of the teams that claimed those at-large bids were heavy favorites to win their conference tournaments and secure two of the 10 automatic bids.
Instead, they were upset in their respective conference tournament championship games by teams that had a near-zero chance of getting at-large bids, effectively shrinking the bubble – and thus completely altering Penn State's fate.
After beating Old Dominion 3-0 during the regular season, one-loss Connecticut couldn't beat the Monarchs in the Big East Championship Game. And after beating Miami 3-2 during the regular season, one-loss Massachusetts couldn't beat the RedHawks in the MAC Championship Game.
At least based on RPI, Old Dominion and Miami were not even going to factor into the at-large conversation at all.
But as a result of those championship game outcomes, Old Dominion and Miami received automatic bids that were favored to go to UConn and UMass, while UConn and UMass both received at-large bids that would have otherwise gone to teams on the bubble, effectively turning two single-bid leagues into two two-bid leagues.
And in this case, Penn State and Wake Forest lost out.
First-round NCAA results add frustrating twist to Penn State's NCAA selection snub
Because of those upsets, seven of the 10 automatic bids ultimately went to teams that were lower than Penn State in RPI. Had it been just five, the Nittany Lions would have been firmly in position for an at-large selection.
And the first round of the NCAA Tournament made those results even more frustrating than they already were.
After they couldn't beat Old Dominion, UConn returned to their winning ways and knocked out Lafayette in the first round. Meanwhile, Old Dominion lost decisively to Harvard.
And after they couldn't beat Miami, UMass shut out Ivy League Tournament champion Yale in what we'd consider an "upset-in-seed-only". Meanwhile, Miami was shut out by North Carolina, a team that received criticism themselves throughout the week after they were controversially seeded No. 8, despite having a resume comparable to those of the bubble teams.
If only those four Big East and MAC teams had performed as expected less than a week earlier...
"If, if, if", right?
Alas, that's sometimes just how it goes in the world of sport, and quite frankly, the parity and unpredictability is part of what keeps things entertaining, and not just in field hockey.
As for Penn State, it's just a shame they can't be a part of that on-field entertainment this week.
Sunday's quarterfinal matchups, which are all set to be shown live on ESPN+ this afternoon, include Northwestern vs. North Carolina, Princeton vs. UConn, Harvard vs. UMass, and Duke vs. Maryland.
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