Penn State women’s soccer clinches first-round bye in Big Ten Tournament
Penn State women’s soccer will look to continue its stellar season into the postseason as it secured the top seed in the Big Ten Regional Weekend Tournament on April 8 and 11, receiving a bye and facing the winner of Michigan and Indiana in the second round.
The regular season Big Ten Champion Nittany Lions displayed their dominant offense on Saturday, when they routed Maryland 6-0 — their highest goal-scoring game of the season — by scoring three goals in the game’s first 17 minutes, and never looked back.
Frankie Tagliaferri and Ally Schlegel both led the way with two goals apiece and finished the game with five and four total points, respectively. Redshirt sophomore goalkeeper Katherine Asman notched her third consecutive shutout and her fifth on the year.
It was also Senior Day for Penn State as graduate student Kristin Schnurr was the only player recognized, since Tagliaferri, Kerry Abello and Sam Coffey all have committed to returning to State College in the fall. Throughout her career, Schnurr was named a three-time Academic All-Big Ten honoree and has compiled 24 points in 50 games played.
The Nittany Lions commanded the Big Ten conference all year, finishing with a 9-1-1 overall record and won their final five regular-season games. They haven’t suffered a loss since their opening-day game at Rutgers, 3-2.
Not only did they dominate as a team, but they had standout performers all season long as Schlegel led the conference in goals with nine, followed by Coffey and Tagliaferri tied for second with six goals apiece. Both Coffey and Tagliaferri sit at the very top of the assists column with both players notching eight total. Schlegel led the Big Ten in points with 24 total, which is good for 2.18 per game.
The single-elimination Big Ten Regional Tournament will start on Thursday and be held at four different campus locations, with the winning team from each location advancing to a four-team Big Ten Tournament that will be held at the campus of the highest-remaining seed.
On the East side of the bracket, Michigan State will face Rutgers and Maryland will face Ohio State — both games taking place at Ohio State on Thursday — and the winners will play each other Sunday.
Penn State has a first round bye so it will face the winner of Michigan and Indiana — scheduled for Thursday at Jeffrey Field — on April 11 and if it wins, takes on the eventual winner of the four teams mentioned previously.
The four-team Big Ten Tournament is scheduled to start April 15, with the championship game being held on April 18. The champion will receive the conference’s automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.
The Nittany Lions won the Big Ten Tournament the last time they played in it in 2019, defeating Michigan 2-1 in overtime. They won their first two NCAA tournament games before eventually falling to the top overall seed, Stanford, 2-0.
This story was originally published April 4, 2021 at 5:34 PM.