The Penn State Nittany Lions field hockey team finished the 2025 season without a comeback victory, marking the first time since the 2015 season they had failed to win a single game (0-10) after trailing at any point.
They started the 2026 season with a comeback for the ages, and while they couldn't quite finish the job to secure a massive upset victory, their performance completely shredded a lot of the preexisting narratives surrounding the program following their 7-10 finish from a year ago.
The No. 5-ranked Virginia Cavaliers didn't even need a full minute to get on the board in Friday afternoon's contest at Char Morett-Curtiss Field at the Penn State Field Hockey Complex, and they took a 2-0 lead into halftime before adding a third consecutive goal in the third quarter.
At one point, the B1G+ announcers claimed the Nittany Lions needed to "wake up", as it was beginning to look like a carbon copy of several recent lopsided Penn State losses, including their 5-1 loss to UVA to start the 2025 season.
Then, all of a sudden, it was 3-3.
Within a stretch of only six minutes, sophomore Olivia Marthins scored a goal on a penalty corner, junior Maryland transfer Ella Gaitan scored a goal off of an assist from sophomore Joji Purdy, and freshman Chloe D'Hage scored a goal off of an assist from graduate student Sienna Dunn, another talented addition to this year's roster from overseas.
Virginia still could have won the game in regulation, if not for an incredible defensive effort by Penn State's penalty corner unit with just over three minutes to play, capped off by both a defensive save from junior Morgan Snyder and ultimately a highlight-reel-worthy diving stop from goalkeeper Aby Deverka to keep the game tied at three apiece.
Unfortunately for the Nittany Lions, a Virginia penalty corner that was awarded after a lengthy review in overtime was enough to preserve what once felt like a slam-dunk victory for the heavy favorites from Charlottesville.
But in a world of sport where there are never truly any moral victories, this felt like exactly that for a Penn State team entering its first season under new head coach Hannah Prince.
Penn State made a statement the rest of the country can't ignore
We get it; it's still a loss. Any overtime loss is going to hurt, probably even more so than a 3-0 loss would have hurt, because of just how close they were to opening up the season with a win over the No. 5 team in the country. This one, too, because of just how unlikely a win would have been, after trailing 3-0, several minutes into the fourth quarter.
But a year ago, that kind of comeback simply does not happen.
It took a six-minute stretch in game one of the Prince era to make a statement that this team is dangerous, and that you may overlook them at your own risk. Virginia, consistently one of the top teams in the country both offensively and defensively, found that out quicker than they would have liked.
And I don't know that anybody would have anticipated finding it out this quickly, especially not the Penn Monto/NFHCA Division I National Coaches Poll voters, who omitted Penn State from their preseason top 20 for the first since the poll's 1998 inception earlier this week.
Make no mistake about it; if this team plays the way they played in the fourth quarter even some of the time moving forward, their upside may extend well beyond simply cracking the top 20.
Offensive inconsistency plagued Penn State throughout the 2025 season, and while they did go scoreless through three quarters to start this one, the fact that they have the balance to go on the kind of run that they did is huge. Their six-minute scoring stretch featured five different point scorers, after 15 throughout the entire 2025 season was their highest single-season mark since 2018.
Defensive inconsistency early on was still an issue, and it was uncomfortably reminiscent of some of their past blowout losses. But their fourth-quarter defense on Friday looked like the kind of defensive effort that led to a double-overtime shutout of Iowa's high-powered offense late in the 2025 season.
It goes without saying it would be nice to get off to faster starts, but if they're going to play the way they did today when they get behind, then perhaps you pick your battles on that one.
For a team that has consistently lost games when not only allowing the opponent to score first but allowing the opponent to score at all, this game proved it's not over until it's over, and every ounce of belief is worth embracing.
Once that first goal was on the board, it really never felt over. And the absence of a feeling that became all too familiar in 2025 is exactly what this team needed to start 2026.
Simply knowing they're not out of a game, whether the score is 1-0, 2-0, 3-0, or whatever it might be, has to be considered a massive confidence boost, one game into a long 17-game season. And while the loss still stings, they were never going to win a national championship in August.
They were certainly never going to win the Big Ten in August, or qualify for their first Big Ten Tournament since 2023 in an August season opener against an ACC team.
What they could do, and what they have done, is prove they belong in the discussion, and all things considered, there are far more positives than negatives to come out of this game. That means a lot more than an 0-1 record might imply, given how different the final 15 minutes of regulation played out, compared to the first 45.
Penn State's next game is the second of six consecutive home games to open up the 2026 season, and it's scheduled to take place on Sunday afternoon at 12:00 p.m. ET against a Lock Haven team they beat 8-0 a year ago. Live coverage is once again set to be provided by B1G+, Big Ten Network's subscription streaming service.
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