Kent State Fights Hard with Penn State in Competitive Home Loss

Sunday, October 11

Kent, Ohio

12:00 p.m.

Kent State University

(3-10, 2-3)

Penn State

(8-4, 2-1)

Team	1	2	3	4	Final F
Penn State	0	2	0	1	3
Kent St.	0	0	0	0	0

Emily Robertson slapping a pass across the pitch to a teammate as water flies off her stick from the grass

Photo by: Elliot Wall

Kent State Fights Hard with Penn State in Competitive Home Loss

10/11/2026 3:08:00 PM | Field Hockey

Box Score

KENT, Ohio – The Kent State Field Hockey team was defeated 0-3 against the Penn State Nittany Lions on Sunday afternoon at home at Murphy-Mellis Field.

Despite the loss, there was a palpable good energy around the Golden Flashes throughout the game. The team competed hard throughout, especially on defense, where they stopped a season-high eight penalty corners.

The Golden Flashes held the Nittany Lions scoreless through the first quarter thanks to several saves by goalkeeper Michaela Skinner. The fifth-year graduate transfer tallied her third double-digit save game of the season with 10 on the day. Skinner also improved her save percentage to .676 on the season after facing a consistent Penn State attack that put 13 shots on goal.

Penn State finally broke through in the second quarter, scoring their lone penalty corner goal of the game by leading scorer Ella Gaitan. PSU then later scored on a breakaway goal by Olivia Marthins that was assisted by Chloe D'Hage. The Nittany Lions took a 2-0 lead into the half.

Offensively, Kent State's Alexa Knott came off the bench to lead the team with two shots in the second quarter. The pair of opportunities ended up being the leading amount of shots in the game for the Golden Flashes.

The third quarter was also scoreless for Penn State as Kent State held the BIG-10 school to a quarter-low three shots. The high-energy off the bench and on the field kept the game within striking distance for Kent State as the game headed into the fourth.

With 10 minutes left and KSU still down by a pair of goals, sophomore back Ryli Zee stopped back-to-back Penn State shots off a penalty corner via defensive saves. Zee remains in the conference lead with seven defensive saves and is tied for second in the entire NCAA Division I ranks in the category.

Zee's second defensive save in the game broke a tie with Kent State alum Clara Seto Rodriguez for the most defensive saves in a single season for Kent State since the start of the 21^st century.

Despite the defensive efforts, Penn State put the game away with their third goal of the night with nine minutes to go in the fourth. Chloe D'Hage tallied the goal to give herself a three point night.

Up Next

The Golden Flashes have a very important weekend of field hockey coming up as they take on Longwood on the road on Friday, Oct. 16 at 3pm and then face Appalachian State at home on Sunday, Oct. 18 at noon. The doubleheader will likely decide Kent State's fate for a potential MAC Tournament berth as the Golden Flashes currently sit slightly on the outside looking in of the top six teams in the conference.

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