Penn State Bests Santa Clara in Round Two of the NCAA Women’s Soccer Tournament

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - In the pouring rain Friday night, the second seed Penn State took the pitch at Jeffrey Field against seventh seed Santa Clara.

Santa Clara came into this match, giving up 11 goals the entire season. Three minutes into the game, Kaitlyn MacBean increased that number to 12.

MacBean’s goal was the product of a three-pass counterattack that stretched the entire length of the field.

Payton Linnehan started the counterattack by playing a superb layoff to Olivia Borgen; Borgen then drove the ball 35 yards up the field, beating two Santa Clara defenders in the process before playing the ball to MacBean. MacBean faked a shot to unbalance her defender before cutting inside and scoring past Marlee Nicolos for her seventh goal of the season.

Santa Clara head coach Jerry Smith discussed how difficult it was to play from behind against a team like Penn State. “They caught us on the counters, and so playing from behind is tough against a team like Penn State, but sometimes you just have to go for broke.”

In the 20th minute, Kaitlyn MacBean picked up a ball in her own half before spinning and playing a wondrous through ball to Payton Linnehan, who finished off the counterattack to double Penn State’s lead.

Penn State fell into a defensive shell in the second half, electing to protect their two-goal lead. For 45 minutes, the Nittany Lions defended furiously, only giving up four shots on goal. None of the four shots tested Katherine Asman in any way.

Head coach Erica Dambach strongly praised her team’s defensive efforts. “I think this group showed that we’re willing to bend but not break. I thought the defending was really good.”

Coach Dambach furthered her praise to her two goalscorers, MacBean and Linnehan, on their defensive work throughout the match, “I thought the commitment to the defending led by these two, I know they scored goals but they also led all our defending efforts.”

Following the win, Penn State moves on to the round of 16 of the NCAA Tournament. Their next matchup is Sunday versus St Louis, played at Jeffrey Field.

With only a two-day rest between this match and the match Sunday versus Saint Louis, fans were concerned about how Penn State would deal with such a short turnaround. Payton Linnehan quelled those concerns by explaining how Penn State has already prepared for this situation.

“We tried to practice this a little bit last week with our training on Sunday, with just emphasizing the importance of recovery and then getting after it on Sunday, and we feel prepared for that.”

St Louis will be a difficult opponent for the Nittany Lions, but Coach Dambach isn’t afraid of a challenge. “It's a very talented, committed St. Louis team. For it is all about Penn State and it’s all about kind of continuing to do the things that we’ve done all season long and sticking to our DNA.”

Dambach will be sure to have her team ready for the match against St. Louis on Sunday at 1 p.m. EST.

Owen Cameros is a first-year student majoring in broadcast journalism. To contact him, please email Ohc5024@psu.edu.