No. 9 Penn State and James Madison end in 1-1 draw on senior night in Happy Valley: women’s soccer
Penn State and James Madison end in a draw on senior night in Happy Valley. Photo: Lily Dorf
Despite it being Penn State’s senior night, a sophomore and a freshman were the storytellers during Sunday night’s match at Jeffrey Field in Happy Valley.
The final score was 1-1. The No. 9 Nittany Lions are now 3-1-1 in the season, and the unranked Dukes are similarly 3-1-2.
With all the hype surrounding Penn State graduate student Kaitlyn MacBean, she was unsurprisingly guarded by two to three players all night.
MacBean split some of her time with freshman Riley Cross, from New Jersey, which proved to move the needle.
“Some of these games are so tactical we've got to be able to shift and give them some different solutions and I think they're doing an awesome job of taking the solutions that we're giving them and putting them into the game,” Penn State women’s head soccer coach Erica Dambach said.
It was Bella Ayscue, a sophomore defender from Cary, North Carolina, who stepped up during a passing sequence with teammates Cross and Julia Raich (Senior, Camp Hill, Pa.) that broke the ice.
She scored the only goal for the blue and white - her second collegiate goal - on a corner kick just outside the 18 at 41:53 in the first half. Cross earned her first assist of her college career.
Up until the late first half goal scored by Ayscue, both teams were putting on clinics, passing the ball around the backfield looking for available action up field.
JMU's defensive trio of sophomore Emily Graeca (DuBois, Pa.), freshman Roos Valk (Beverwijk, Netherlands), and sophomore Tali Rovner (Santiago, Chile) did their jobs throughout the match, particularly in the midfield, preventing Penn State from creating a fast break runway or passing lanes.
Their efforts were able to contain the Nittany Lions for most of the match, even when things turned physical, which helped freshman Audrey Orrock of Chesapeake, Virginia to score for the Dukes.
She was assisted by freshman Ginny Lackey (Manchester, England) and senior Jordan Yang (Clifton, Va.)
The second goal was scored in the 73rd minute of the game.
The Nittany Lions travel to Virginia to play the Cavaliers Thursday, Sept. 4, and James Madison hosts Maryland the same day.
Thank you for reading Female Athlete News. Lily Dorf is a student-intern at Penn State University.
