PSU field hockey head coach Hannah Prince is pictured on the left. PSU field hockey athletes on the right. Photos: Penn State Athletics
Two years ago, Northwestern stood between Hannah Prince’s Saint Joseph’s team and a national title.
On Friday, her Penn State team shut out the nation’s No. 1 program, giving the Nittany Lions a boost headed into the postseason.
The Nittany Lions earned the No. 3 seed in the Big Ten tournament in Prince’s first season leading the program. It is their first conference tournament appearance since 2023, when Ohio State eliminated them in the opening round.
Now, a 2-0 win over Northwestern in the Oct. 30 regular-season finale has given Penn State more than a postseason berth: evidence that it can challenge the teams at the top.
Penn State finished the regular season 12-5 overall and 6-2 in conference play. Against Northwestern, Cooper Cutchins broke the scoreless tie in the third quarter, Lilly Holmes added a late goal and goalkeeper Aby Deverka made seven saves.
For Prince, the foundation was there before the results. She called it “special” to see the players and how they wanted to support each other from the start of the season, which began much slower than they had hoped.
But, the players’ carried determination into a regular-season finish that changed the stakes.
Prince has seen a conference contender turn postseason belief into a national breakthrough.
In 2024, she guided Saint Joseph’s past UMass, 2-1, for the program’s fourth consecutive Atlantic 10 tournament title. The Hawks then beat Lafayette and Princeton, both 1-0, in the NCAA tournament before upsetting top-seeded North Carolina, 2-1, in the semifinals.
That run put Saint Joseph’s in its first national championship game on Nov. 24, 2024, in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Northwestern won 5-0, but the Hawks finished 20-4 with a program-record win total.
Penn State has not reached that stage. Still, beating Northwestern showed the Nittany Lions “have the abilities to compete with anyone,” Prince said.
The result felt “great,” she said, and brought congratulations from Saint Joseph’s alumni and friends.
Associate coach Mark Wadsley, who joined her at Penn State, shares that connection to her previous program.
The parallel is a team preparing to test itself in the postseason—not an identical climb through the rankings.
Saint Joseph’s entered the 2024 NCAA tournament ranked fourth nationally and as the No. 4 seed. Penn State was No. 14 when it beat Northwestern.
This season’s growth, Prince said, came from players who were “fed up with not winning and not going to postseason” and ready to embrace the opportunity to grow with “some new teammates and new coaches.”
The next test comes against Iowa at 5 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 4, at Ohio State’s Buckeye Varsity Field.
The Hawkeyes beat Penn State 1-0 on Oct. 25. The tournament opener offers the Nittany Lions a rematch—and a chance to carry their Northwestern performance into elimination play.
Prince told Female Athlete News she wants to see the team that defeated Northwestern to “show up tomorrow and hopefully the next couple weeks.”
Keeping that momentum, she said, requires a “do or die mentality” in the postseason.
That approach began in the Spring, when Prince worked with the players to establish their values.
The next step, she said, is “empowering them to buy into that.”
At Saint Joseph’s, the postseason path led all the way to a meeting with Northwestern for a national title.
At Penn State, Prince’s next chapter starts with Iowa.
*Simmie Samra is a student-intern at Penn State University.
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