A historic eight-game win streak, which included a long list of "firsts" from the past few years and even decades, came to an end on Sunday afternoon for the Penn State Nittany Lions field hockey team, at the hands of the Iowa Hawkeyes in Iowa City.
Iowa's lone second-half goal was enough to give them a 1-0 victory in what was Penn State's first shutout loss of the season, a season in which they've made massive improvement across the board under first-year head coach Hannah Prince and have defied preseason expectations left and right.
Penn State had already been locked into the Big Ten Tournament, their first since 2023, for more than a week entering Sunday's game at Iowa, so at this point, it's really all about seeding.
The loss did not affect their standing in the Big Ten. They're still third at 5-2, after entering the day third at 5-1; Maryland held the tiebreaker for second due to their head-to-head victory over Penn State in mid-September.
At this point, with Northwestern (7-0) locked in at No. 1 and Maryland (6-1) locked in at No. 2, Penn State could be seeded anywhere from No. 3 to No. 5 in the Big Ten Tournament. We broke down all the possible scenarios in a separate article published earlier this week.
There's a good chance that they could play the Hawkeyes in the first round of that tournament, which would give them a chance at quick revenge on neutral turf just over a week removed from Sunday's loss.
Is a Penn State vs. Iowa rematch on the horizon?
As things stand, Penn State is one game ahead of three teams that are tied at 4-3: Indiana, Rutgers, and Iowa. Penn State beat Indiana and Rutgers head-to-head, but the Nittany Lions lost to Iowa.
Indiana and Rutgers both beat Iowa, which is why Iowa is currently listed sixth in the Big Ten as the last-place team in the three-way tie, while Indiana's game against Rutgers is scheduled to take place this Friday.
Somebody obviously has to lose the Indiana vs. Rutgers game, meaning that one of those two teams will have four losses. The winner will also be 5-3, but even if Penn State loses to Northwestern on Friday to drop to 5-3 themselves, the Nittany Lions would own the head-to-head tiebreaker for the No. 3 seed if the tie remains between only those two teams.
If Iowa were to lose to Maryland, they'd finish 4-4, and they'd lose out on the head-to-head tiebreaker to whichever one of Indiana or Rutgers is also 4-4.
In other words, an Iowa loss, regardless of what else happens on Friday, would set Penn State up with a rematch against the Hawkeyes in the opening round of the Big Ten Tournament, with Penn State as the No. 3 seed and Iowa as the No. 6 seed.
Iowa would undoubtedly be a formidable No. 6 seed. They actually did beat Indiana too, but because they played them in a doubleheader and they lost the game that actually counted toward the Big Ten standings, they are classified as having an 0-1 conference record against the Hoosiers.
Had the win over Indiana, rather than the loss, counted toward the conference standings, Iowa's game against Maryland this week would be a direct head-to-head battle for the No. 2 seed.
But the No. 3 vs. No. 6 game isn't the only possibility for a Penn State vs. Iowa rematch in the opening round.
How Penn State vs. Iowa could happen as the No. 4 vs. No. 5 game
Even if Iowa beats Maryland, which would guarantee that it's the loser of the Indiana vs. Rutgers game that gets the No. 6 seed at 4-4, there's also a chance that Penn State could take on the Hawkeyes in the opening round of the Big Ten Tournament in the No. 4 vs. No. 5 game.
According to the Big Ten's tiebreaker parameters, "Ties shall be considered separated when a team(s) emerges from the top, middle or bottom of the group and is awarded a seed(s)", and "Once a seed (or seeds) is awarded, all remaining tied teams shall restart the tiebreak process at the first criteria".
If the head-to-head tiebreaker cannot be applied, the next tiebreaker would be conference regulation and overtime point total. Awarded points include "3 points for a win in regulation, 2 points for an overtime win, 1 point for an overtime loss, 0 points for a loss in regulation".
Here's how the point tallies for Penn State, Indiana, Rutgers, and Iowa currently stack up.
Big Ten rank | Team | Record | Win | OT Win | OT Loss | Loss | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
3 | Penn State | 5-2 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 13 |
4 | Indiana | 4-3 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 12 |
5 | Rutgers | 4-3 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 10 |
6 | Iowa | 4-3 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 12 |
If there's a three-way tie featuring Penn State, Indiana, and Iowa at 5-3, head-to-head wouldn't solve anything, as Penn State beat Indiana, Indiana beat Iowa, and Iowa beat Penn State.
Penn State could end up with either 13 (regulation loss) or 14 (overtime loss) conference points, Indiana could end up with either 14 (overtime win) or 15 (regulation win) conference points, and Iowa could end up with either 14 (overtime win) or 15 (regulation win) conference points.
In the event that each team has a different point tally (Indiana or Iowa has 15, the other team has 14, and Penn State has 13), seeds would be awarded in accordance with that order, since teams would have emerged in the top, middle, and bottom of the group, thereby rendering a restart to the tiebreak process unnecessary.
So Penn State would be the No. 5 seed and face No. 4 seed Iowa if Indiana beats Rutgers in regulation, Iowa beats Maryland in overtime, and Northwestern beats Penn State in regulation. But if Indiana beats Rutgers in overtime and Iowa beats Maryland in regulation instead, Penn State would face Indiana.
In the event that Indiana and Iowa are tied on points ahead of Penn State, Indiana would be awarded the No. 3 seed on the head-to-head tiebreaker over Iowa, and Iowa would then be awarded the No. 4 seed. Not only do they own the head-to-head tiebreaker over Penn State, but Penn State would have already been separated by emerging at the bottom of the group, thereby netting the Nittany Lions the No. 5 seed.
In the event that only one of the two teams finishes ahead of Penn State on points and the other is tied with the Nittany Lions with 14, the team that finishes with 15 would be awarded the No. 3 seed. Penn State would face the other, with seeding determined by the head-to-head tiebreaker.
To face Iowa under this scenario, Indiana would need 15 points while Iowa and Penn State would each need 14, and Iowa would be awarded the No. 4 seed on the head-to-head tiebreaker over Penn State. Penn State would be awarded the No. 5 seed.
Importantly, in the event that all three teams finish with 14 points, Penn State would play Indiana, not Iowa. The next tiebreaker would be "Point total vs. remaining teams in tie (3 points for a win in regulation, 2 points for an overtime win, 1 point for an overtime loss, 0 points for a loss in regulation)."
All three teams would have 3 points, since their records against one another are each 1-1 with all games decided in regulation.
So the next tiebreaker would be "The records versus each Conference team not among the tied teams, in order of Conference finish." None of the three would have beaten No. 1 seed Northwestern under this scenario, but Iowa would have beaten No. 2 seed Maryland. So Iowa would get the No. 3 seed, and Penn State would get the No. 4 seed on the head-to-head tiebreaker over Indiana.
Separately, if there's a three-way tie featuring Penn State, Rutgers, and Iowa at 5-3, head-to-head also wouldn't solve anything as Penn State beat Rutgers, Rutgers beat Iowa, and Iowa beat Penn State.
But this tiebreaker has already effectively been decided. Iowa would be guaranteed to finish with more points than Rutgers, and at worst, they'd be tied with Penn State at 14. Iowa would be awarded the No. 3 seed, Penn State would be awarded the No. 4 seed, and Rutgers would be awarded the No. 5 seed, so this scenario also would not produce a first-round matchup between Penn State and Iowa.
Live coverage of all remaining Big Ten regular season games on the 2026 schedule is set to be provided by B1G+ this Friday, October 30, with the Indiana vs. Rutgers game set to lead things off at 12:00 p.m. ET, followed by the Iowa vs. Maryland game at 1:00 p.m. ET and the Northwestern vs. Penn State game at 3:00 p.m. ET.
The Ohio State vs. Michigan game, which is the de facto battle for the No. 7 and final seed in the tournament (and the right to play Maryland), is set to begin at 5:00 p.m. ET.
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