Penn State women's soccer takes down Northwestern, improves to 2-0 in conference play

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - Even when the beat or instrumental isn’t super appealing to the listener, the most talented artists can still find a way to make the music sound good. Despite the many hits Penn State has released so far, this would turn out to be one of their more hard-fought matchups.

The Nittany Lions entered their fixture against the Northwestern Wildcats with a 7-1-1 record Thursday night at Jeffrey Field. After defeating Michigan last week, Penn State looked to improve to 2-0 against Big Ten opponents.

The first half was played fairly even as neither team could find the back of the net before the intermission.

The only real chance of the half for either side came from Penn State’s Olivia Borgen, who despite getting past the defense, couldn’t find a finishing touch to complete the attack.

After a lackluster first forty-five minutes, Penn State head coach Erica Dambach needed to find a way to break down the organized Northwestern defense.

“We put in a system that we thought, based on the first half what we saw, we could get Mieke [Schiemann] on the dribble,” Dambach explained when asked about halftime adjustments.

Switches like these allowed Penn State’s build-up play to flow much better after the break.

After all, change is what often results in growth.

In the 48th minute of play, Kaitlyn MacBean, who has seemingly been the lead singer of this Penn State band, slipped behind the Northwestern defense to play her hit song of the season: scoring goals.

MacBean’s 10th goal of the season was assisted by Jordan Fusco who always seems to find the Penn State forward.

“We have that connection where we just know where the other one’s going to be,” MacBean said when describing her relationship with Fusco.

MacBean continued to praise her teammate by saying Fusco “does the hard part.” The two have now connected for six of MacBean’s 10 goals on the season.

After the Nittany Lions established their lead, it was all about the defense, and standing tall against the Wildcat attack. In the late stages of the game, Northwestern nearly found the equalizer, but came up just short.

“The hard thing is you have to communicate out to a group of players, it’s frantic, the crowd’s yelling, the sideline’s yelling,” coach Dambach stated when discussing the team’s defense late in the game.

“We’ve got to be better with it,” Dambach added. Despite the clean sheet, the Penn State head coach still looks to improve the team’s back line, and the communication with it, in late-game situations.

While nothing came to hurt the Nittany Lions in this game, they’ll look to iron this out before their next match against Michigan State.

The Spartans are an impressive 7-0-2 as they prepare to face the now 8-1-1 Penn State Nittany Lions Sunday, Sept., 22.

Alex Harkins is a second-year student majoring in broadcast journalism. To contact him, email arh6278@psu.edu.