• This is the season-opening match for Penn, kicking off a weekend of Philadelphia matches with the team going on to face Drexel on Sunday.
• Penn was picked to finish seventh in the Ivy League’s preseason poll with 41 points. The Quakers are coming off of a 6-7-3 campaign in 2023, going 1-4-2 in league action. They are looking for their first road win since Sept. 10, 2023 when they defeated Saint Joseph’s 1-0. After that, the team lost four straight road contests.
• The Quakers recorded the second-best save percentage in the Ivy League last season at .843, a clip that landed them 27th nationally. Their goals against average of .813 was third in the conference and 47th nationally. They lost goalkeeper Laurence Gladu who transferred to USC but return both junior Annabel Austen and sophomore Megan Graves. Austen has not seen time in net since the 2022 season when she started in one of her two appearances, logging 112:33 in net with five saves.
• Penn returns 11 of the 14 goals scored last season, losing just two goal scorers. Abbey Book returns as the leading scorer from a year ago, netting three goals for six points. Mallory Lucas is also back, tying Cook with six points on two goals and two assists. The group did lose their lone All-Ivy selection, Ginger Fontenot. The First Team selection transfered to Penn State.
• Head coach Dr. Krissy Turner is in her third year at the helm of the program, holding a 9-13-10 record with the Quakers.

Home Sweet Higgins: Friday closes out a stretch of three straight home contests to open the season. Villanova is 156-95-31 all-time at home and 5-6-7 during head coach Samar Azem’s tenure.

Reaching New Heights: The 4-0 win over Temple on August 18 marked the most goals in a game for Villanova since a 4-1 win at Delaware on August 22, 2021. The four-goal victory also marks the largest winning margin for the program since a 5-1 win over Seton Hall on Oct. 10, 2019.

Freshmen Firsts: The freshman duo of Madison Shumate and Morgan Kotch had a stellar outing in the 4-0 win over Temple, scoring two goals each for their first collegiate goals. They are the first Wildcats to notch two goals in a single game since Jackie Richards netted two at George Mason on Sept. 3, 2023.

Memorable Morgan: Morgan Kotch’s debut weekend in the Blue and White ended with Freshman of the Week accolades on August 19 after netting two goals in the win over Temple. Her first collegiate goal came in the 37th minute before netting the dagger in the 60th minute. The Yardville, N.J. native recorded five shots on the week with two on frame in 80 minutes of action.

Shumate and Kotch's Braces Down Temple, 4-0

The four goals scored mark the most in a game for Villanova since 2021

VILLANOVA, Pa. – After an hour and 15-minute lightning delay, freshmen Madison Shumate and Morgan Kotch had electrifying outings with the first goals of their collegiate careers to help lift Villanova to a bounce-back win, taking down Temple 4-0 on Sunday at Higgins Soccer Complex.
 
The pair of goals from the duo gave Villanova (1-1) its most goals in a single game since a 4-1 win at Delaware on August 22, 2021. The four-goal victory also marks the largest winning margin for the program since a 5-1 win over Seton Hall on Oct. 10, 2019. Villanova outshot Temple (0-2) by a stout 20-7 margin, peppering 11 shots on frame compared to five from the Owls.
 
"Credit to (Temple). They're a hard team to break down," Villanova head coach Samar Azem said. "We watched their game against Monmouth whose a fantastic team, they score a lot of goals, and they had a hard time breaking Temple down, so we knew that we were going to have to be really decisive on how we open the field up, what our shape looked like and what we were able to do when we had the ball but still rely on who are defensively. The players did a fantastic job."

Shumate was an offensive powerhouse on the day, adding an assist to her output for five points while landing four of her six shot attempts on frame. Kotch sent out four attempts with two on frame. Defender  Olivia Neal came up big for the 'Cats with a team-high two assists. 

The scoring carousel began in the 13th minute with Shumate capitalizing on a missed cross deep in the 18-yard box that deflected off the crossbar. Battling a pair of Owls in the six-yard box, Shumate was able to push the ball into the back left of the net, putting Villanova on the board, 1-0.

Shumate needed less than two minutes to double the lead. Neal picked up a critical steal that she dished over to Shumate. The forward got past a Temple defender just outside the left wall of the 18-yard box, sending a screamer into the upper 90 from nearly 16 yards out for a 2-0 advantage.

Kotch made her way onto the scoring ledger in the 37th minute. Shumate picked up an open ball near the midfield circle and found a racing Neal. The graduate defender dashed into the 18-yard box and made a nifty side pass to Kotch who was seven-yards in front of the box with no one on her, sending a look past Temple's goalkeeper Tamsin Bynoe for a 3-0 lead.

Villanova went into the halftime break with a strong 12-4 lead in shots, 7-3 in shots on goal. The Wildcats' offense forced Bynoe and the Temple defense to make four saves in the opening period. 

The final dagger came early in the second half off the foot of Kotch. In the 60th minute, Susanna Soderman went one-on-one with a Temple defender near the corner but was able to make a move around her. She sent a look deep into the box and found the head of a leaping Kotch right inside the six-yard box. She headed in a shot right in front of Bynoe for the final 4-0 tally.

Hannah Dickinson and Allie Vincent combined for the shutout in net for the 'Cats. Dickinson made four saves in her nearly 76 minutes on the pitch. On Temple's end of the pitch, Bynoe and Taylor Vecchione combined for six saves with the team adding a seventh on the day.