Penn State Seeing Returns on Incremental Improvements

After a Feb. 18 loss to Pitt, Penn State went more than a month without a victory. Coach Missy Doherty’s group dropped six straight before it finally righted the ship against Oregon on March 23.

Like many teams around the country, graduation struck the Nittany Lions’ roster with a vengeance ahead of the season. Penn State lost the bulk of its starting lineup, as well as several key contributors off the bench.

“We had a lot of people that needed game experience, whether they were upperclassmen or freshmen,” Doherty said. “Seeing the growth from game to game, chipping away and getting better at things, you could just see them coming together.”

As a Sunday road test against then-No. 13 Michigan loomed, Doherty and her team had enough of their previous missteps.

Doherty said the Nittany Lions competed well in their Big Ten losses to Maryland and Northwestern. They simply lacked composure for a full 60 minutes.

“That’s been our progression to be done with being a young team,” Doherty said. “We certainly were one in the first month or so, with some turnovers and situational play. But as we started learning throughout the season, we became better at handling those situations.”

At a potential season turning point, Penn State nabbed a 13-12 overtime victory over the Wolverines.

Erika Ho — a junior attacker who had just six career goals entering the spring — posted a team-high five goals with an assist and a draw control in the monumental upset. Doherty said Ho has displayed flashes of brilliance since the first day of fall ball.

“Right from the beginning of the fall, Erika came back in the best shape she has been in since she got here,” Doherty said. “You could see the drive that she had to be the best player possible. There was no mystery that [it] was going to pay off for her in the spring.”

Ho said Penn State’s mentality has carried the group through its early season trials and tribulations.

“Obviously no one wants to lose, but we’ve been really positive,” Ho said. “Our main goal game after game is to just get better as a unit: both offensively, defensively and on the draw. We’re finally getting at a good pace to work together really well.”

Now the Nittany Lions will clash with another Big Ten team fresh off an upset, with a Thursday night home matchup with Rutgers on the docket. The Scarlet Knights bounced back from a 17-6 loss to Johns Hopkins to hand Ohio State a 12-8 defeat on Sunday.

Four days later, both teams will jockey for pivotal position in the conference standings.

CHEPENIK’S SING-SONG SEASON

Just moments before Saturday’s opening draw between South Florida and Vanderbilt, Sofia Chepenik took her spot on the Corbett Stadium grass.

The redshirt sophomore didn’t have her stick in hand. Instead, the attacker carried a microphone as she prepared to sing the national anthem.

“I get more nervous for singing than I do for playing,” Chepenik said. “It’s really nice to know that I had support behind me, not only from [my coaches], but from my teammates. I looked over, and all of them were cheering me on.”

While USF coach Mindy McCord said she checked with Chepenik several times prior to her pregame performance to gauge her ability to dial into the task at hand, Chepenik brushed off her coach’s concern. Less than 15 minutes after her Star-Spangled Banner rendition, Chepenik buried the first of her three goals in the Bulls’ 17-7 win over the Commodores.

With Chepenik recording four points and eight draw controls in addition to her vocal theatrics, McCord simply stood in awe.

“She can do a lot of things successfully because of the joy she has in her heart,” McCord said. “She just doesn’t perceive it as pressure.”

A Jacksonville, Fla., product, Chepenik has served a central role in USF’s flying start to its inaugural season. Chepenik leads the team with 36 goals and 46 points in 11 games.

The Bulls have racked up six consecutive victories since a 13-12 defeat at the hands of Towson on Feb. 23.

Chepenik’s introduction to the sport came from McCord’s youth camps during the coach’s past tenure at Jacksonville. When Chepenik took a visit to USF after her freshman season at Clemson, she saw a vision for boundless potential under a renowned program builder in McCord.

“When I came here for the first time, I knew that this was going to be a place that was going to win championships,” Chepenik said. “We have that standard every day.”

Her belief in the program and McCord’s project meant sitting out for a year after tallying 53 points during her freshman year in 2023. The Bulls could only compete in exhibition games, and they wore pinnies outfitted with the phrase “Earn It.”

“Being able to train together and develop and grow without the expectation and pressure of winning was a welcomed relief from some of our transfers,” McCord said. “We developed players for a year, and I think that’s what COVID taught us. You get an opportunity to take another year to develop people, so it’ll be successful.”

The time away from official games took a toll on Chepenik. During the summer, Chepenik leaned on her support system of coaches and teammates as she grappled with the feeling of tireless work for a far-away payoff. Before the first semester’s final exams, Chepenik underwent an emergency appendectomy mere months before the season opener.

But on Feb. 7, Chepenik scored four goals as USF downed Kennesaw State 19-6 in its first-ever game. The game drew in 2,386 fans — a record crowd for a regular-season women’s lacrosse game in Florida.

“That first game was like nothing I’d ever seen before in any women’s lacrosse game,” Chepenik said. “A lot of us had been waiting a year and a half for that moment, and that moment was finally there. Looking into the stands and knowing that all the blood, sweat and tears have gone into that moment, it was just surreal.”

With the Bulls off to a 3-0 start to American Athletic Conference play, the program’s lofty goals remain up for grabs in its inaugural campaign.

For Chepenik, the season’s early adversity has built to this moment. Now, USF is geared up to attack every opportunity.

“We can play with a chip on our shoulder because we’re a first-year program, and who wants to lose to a first-year program?” Chepenik said. “Anytime we can get an opportunity to play hard and play fast and show what we’ve been working on for a year and a half, we really want to take it to its full advantage. It’s really exciting to see our work finally coming to the light.”

BY THE NUMBERS

20 • Points for Johns Hopkins attacker Ashley Mackin in her past two games, helping the senior capture the NCAA lead in points per game (7.00).

13 • Combined points from Haven Dora and McKenzie Blake in No. 10 Princeton’s 13-11 victory over No. 12 Yale on Saturday.

10 • Goals for Denver’s Olivia Ripple in a 23-10 Wednesday win over Marquette.

91 • Army goalkeeper Lindsey Serafine’s save percentage in a 21-2 win over Lafayette on Saturday.

23 • Draw controls for James Madison’s Maddie Epke as the Dukes staved off a valiant first half from Charlotte on Saturday to prevail 17-10.