No.12 Penn State women’s soccer gets the Senior Day victory over Columbia

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa.- The Penn State Nittany Lions entered on a six-game win streak thanks to a home victory against conference opponent Michigan, as they entered into their final non-conference matchup of the regular season.

The Columbia Lions had also won their previous match as they faced off against Fordham at home, taking the 2-0 victory before traveling out to Happy Valley.

This game was also dedicated to the team’s nine seniors as they announced and honored Olivia Damico, Jordan Fusco, Kaitlyn MacBean, Devon Olive, Rowan Lapi, Elle Kershner, Mieke Schiemann, Kara Ogden and Natalie Wilson, in addition to senior student managers Zach Albright and Griffin Lee.

Here’s how the match went down:

The Blue & White started off hungry putting immediate pressure on the Lions.

At the 15th-minute mark, this hunger resulted in a Nittany Lion goal and lead.

Kaitlyn MacBean assisted on the play, sending the ball to teammate Jordan Fusco who placed it into the back of the net giving Penn State the early lead.

Fusco credited her quick success as a transfer since, “I had the opportunity to come in the spring, so I've been training here since January, which has really expedited that process of transition”.

After this, Penn State turned the heat up almost too hot as they received two back-to-back fouls, both only being given as warnings but letting the Lions know one goal was not enough.

The rest of the half went by in back-and-forth fashion until the 10-minute countdown of the half kicked into gear. This is where things began to pick up steam once more as both teams made a multitude of substitutions to keep their legs fresh on the field.

Finally, in the 37th minute, Columbia fouled within their own box, awarding Penn State with a generous penalty kick. As already seen this season, center-back Mieke Schiemann stepped into the box to take the kick.

With the swift swing of her leg, Schiemann struck it in the net increasing the Nittany Lions lead to 2-0.

“You can say she’s as composed as can be, and, you know, she’s got a good head on her (Schiemann) shoulders,” Head Coach Erica Dambach said when it came to being chosen for the moment.

On the other end of the field, Blue & White, redshirt junior goalkeeper Amanda Poorbaugh matched her career high in saves keeping Columbia off the board.

The remainder of the half resulted in much more of the same physical battle as both teams attempted to tie up loose ends going into the half.

Once back in the action things seemed to have taken a step back in progress as the leading (Nittany) Lions of the match came out with cold feet.

There was an immediate shift beginning in the defense as Columbia found multiple breaks into the back end putting shots on goal.

Columbia was finally able to find success within the last ten minutes of the match.

In the 83rd minute, Lions Nata Ramirez was able to put Columbia right back into the match gaining her fourth of the season.

Despite this, the Nittany Lions narrowly defeated the Lions 2-1 and in total shot attempts by a 9-8 margin, between this dicey non-conference meeting.

The seniors including Fusco were able to celebrate their special day with a win before they formally begin conference play Thursday at home against Northwestern.

Meanwhile, Columbia will return home in search of getting back in the win column as they face Providence.

Bronwyn Liber is a second-year student majoring in Broadcast Journalism. To contact her, email brl5354@psu.edu.