Penn State women’s soccer held scoreless as it falls to Iowa in the Big Ten semifinals

Penn State women’s soccer will not have a chance to defend its conference title from last season, as the Nittany Lions fell 1-0 to Iowa on Thursday in the Big Ten semifinals at Jeffrey Field, marking the team’s first loss since its Feb. 19 season opener.

Iowa freshman Meike Ingles’ game-winning goal is her third in as many games, and couldn’t have come at a better time for the Hawkeyes, as they capitalized on a Penn State turnover to score the game’s only goal.

The two teams last faced off in the regular season on March 25 in Iowa, with Penn State prevailing 1-0. This time around, the Hawkeyes got their revenge and now advance to the Big Ten Tournament finals on Sunday against the winner of Wisconsin and Rutgers. They finished 12th in the Big Ten regular season, but will be playing in their third championship game in program history.

This is the first time all season that the Nittany Lions were held scoreless, even though they were able to muster up 11 shots on goal. Goalkeeper Katherine Asman kept her team in the game the whole way through, finishing with six saves on seven Iowa shots on goal.

But Hawkeyes’ goalie Macy Enneking was the true star of the game, and has gone 5-2 from the midpoint of the season after she replaced Monica Wilhelm as her teams’ starting goalkeeper. She received a ton of help from her defense, as it seemed every time the Nittany Lions were in scoring position, the Hawkeyes’ defense blocked a shot or cleared the ball away from any danger.

Coming into the match, Penn State outscored its last four opponents 13-1. It looked as if that trend may continue early in the match as the Nittany Lions maintained good control of the ball and made sharp, crisp passes. Within the first five minutes, Penn State generated three shots but one missed and two were blocked.

Redshirt sophomore Ally Schlegel — who was named Big Ten Forward of the Year earlier in the week — had a great scoring chance around the 12 minute mark, but her low-left shot was saved by Enneking. Moments later, All-Big Ten First Teamer Frankie Tagliaferri — who is the only player in the Big Ten with four assists in two separate games — had a scoring chance that generated a corner kick, but the Nittany Lions weren’t able to make anything out of it.

The rest of the first half saw back-and-forth action with no goals, but Penn State forward Elle Kershner was extremely close to putting one past Iowa with five minutes remaining in the half. She shot one from about 10 feet out, which Enneking had to make a diving save to stop.

The Hawkeyes broke the scoring drought just over two minutes into the second half after a Penn State defensive breakdown, and Ingles received a pass from Hailey Rydberg where she processed to shoot it mid left and into the net. Asman got a piece of it, but the shot was hard enough to graze past her and Iowa took the 1-0 lead.

The tides turned for the Nittany Lions at the 61 minute mark after Iowa’s Samantha Cary received her second yellow card of the match, ultimately disqualifying her and forcing the Hawkeyes to play with only 10 players. From that moment, Penn State’s offense woke up and it controlled the ball a majority of the remaining match, generating opportunity after opportunity. But they still couldn’t get the ball in the back of the net.

Schlegel had a great scoring opportunity with just five minutes left in the match, as tons of bodies piled up in front of Enneking. But the goalkeeper was still able to get her hands on Schlegel’s low shot to keep the Nittany Lions scoreless.

Big Ten Midfielder of the Year Sam Coffey had a last-second corner opportunity for Penn State, but, once again, Enneking came up huge and forced another missed shot by the Nittany Lions as the game ended with the Hawkeyes maintaining their one-goal edge.

The Nittany Lions are very likely to play at least another game this season, as their 10-2-1 season record is predictably strong enough to get them into the NCAA Tournament. Now they await for the committee’s decision after Sunday’s Big Ten Championship game.

This story was originally published April 15, 2021 at 7:55 PM.