After a snowy night in Happy Valley, No. 17 Penn State took down the Bucknell Bison in its first regular season game.
The game, originally scheduled to be an away game for Penn State, was moved to Holuba Hall due to the weather in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania.
The Nittany Lions claimed their first win of the season on Tuesday afternoon, beating Bucknell 22-8.
The Bison offense started the game aggressively, moving the ball around the net. The ball found junior attacker Allie Boyce, who worked her way around Penn State goalkeeper Sydney Manning to find the back of the net.
Just four minutes into the game, unnecessary fouls quickly became a problem for Bucknell as it let in two free-position goals. The equalizer was scored by Penn State freshman attacker Kelly MacKinney, and shortly after it was junior Ally Lipkin giving her squad the lead.
Penn State opened the floodgates from there, as Lipkin wasn’t done. She worked around the Bucknell defense and gave the blue and white a 3-1 lead.
Manning kept the momentum going with an impressive save that turned into a quick counterattack by Brooke Hoss.
Halfway through the first quarter, Penn State’s offense continued to show its power with two quick goals, one from senior Gretchen Gilmore on a free position shot and another from sophom*ore Erika Ho. With a 6-1 deficit, Bucknell took its first timeout.
After the break, the Bison looked to find their footing. They worked their way into the attacking third and forced a foul by Rachel Spilker. The yellow card gave Bucknell an opportunity to find the net, and they capitalized with a shot by Boyce.
The blue and white worked to extend its lead and stop the Bison from gaining momentum. Senior Kristin O’Neill and Bucknell's Caroline Sheridan exchanged goals to make it 7-3 Penn State.
In the final minute of the first quarter, Penn State’s Hoss and O’Neill scored two quick goals to extend it to an 8-3 lead. The goals were the second of the game for both players.
Entering the second, both teams were weathering each other’s attacks. However, it was senior Kayla Abernathy who started another scoring streak for the Nittany Lions as O’Neill claimed a hat trick to make it 11-3.
Nearly six minutes into the second quarter, the Bison found the back of the net with a bouncing shot by Boyce. The Nittany Lions bounced right back with a goal of their own, scored by junior Lauren Saltz.
After a Bison timeout, the Nittany Lions attempted to slow the pace of the game by possessing the ball in the final third; however, this led to a turnover, and senior Taylor Kopan’s goal made it a 12-5 game.
With two minutes left in the half, fouls by the orange and blue continued to be a problem as the Nittany Lions scored their fifth free-position goal. It was Abernathy’s second goal of the game and the last of the half.
The second half started with a calm and collected Bucknell team. It worked the ball around the net and fought through the gaps in the defense until senior Emily Baird found the back of the net, making the score 13-6.
Committed to leading her team to a victory, O’Neill picked up her fourth and fifth goals of the game in the span of a minute. Minutes later, the Nittany Lions took a 10-goal lead, 16-6, with Saltz’s second goal of the game.
The scoring ceased to end with graduate student Meghan Murray getting her first of the game, O’Neill tying her career-high with six goals and sophom*ore Emma Kelly also getting her first. Ironically, one of the other times O’Neill reached six scores was also against the Bison back on February 11th, 2023.
As the fourth quarter began, the Nittany Lions silenced the Bison with Murray getting her second goal, Regan Nealon scoring their ninth free-position goal and the defense pressuring everything that came its way.
As time started to wind down, the orange-and-blue and blue-and-white exchanged goals, with Alex Nesbitt scoring for the Bison and Abernathy scoring for the Nittany Lions. The game ended with a last second goal by Sheridan, wrapping up a 22-8 Penn State victory.
O’Neill said postgame that she “thinks this team can accomplish a lot."
"Everyone is so driven to succeed every game,” O'Neill said. “I think we genuinely believe we can beat anybody that we go against in the Big Ten and out of conference.”
Up next
Penn State will remain in State College to host Colorado at 4 p.m. on Friday, where it will have its annual Pink Zone game.
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