PHILADELPHIA – The University of Pennsylvania women's soccer team opened the 2025 season with a clinical win over Mount St. Mary's, knocking off the Mountaineers 5-0 in front of a sizable crowd Sunday night at Rhodes Field.
Penn starts 1-0-0 for the second straight season and posted a shutout in its season opener for the third straight year. The 5-0 scoreline was the Quakers' best in a season opener since a similar 5-0 decision against this same Mount program back in 2018. MSM—which was playing on the road for the third time in as many matches so far this season—fell to 0-3-0.
Quaker Notemeal
*Penn outshot Mount St. Mary's 19-4 on the night and took all seven corner kicks in the match.
*The last time five different players scored in the same match for Penn also came in the 2018 season, when five players tallied a total of six goals in a 6-0 win over Delaware State on October 22 (Abbey Duncan 2, Abby Reed, Paige Howard, Emma Loving, Cameron Keating).
*Senior
Mallory Lucas opened Penn's account for the season with a goal in the 40th minute. It was her fourth career goal and first since early in the 2023 season.
*Junior
Abbey Cook had the Quakers' second goal of the night less than four minutes into the second half, the sixth of her career.
*Playing in her first college match, freshman
Lauren Stevens scored her first collegiate goal to make it 3-0 late on.
*Junior
Mia Fuss had Penn's fourth goal with a nice individual effort. It was her second goal wearing the Red and Blue, the first coming against Cornell back in 2023.
*Sophomore
Leigha Matter was the Quakers' final goal scorer, netting her first collegiate tally in the match's final minute.
*Senior goalkeeper
Annabel Austen went all the way in goal and was credited with two saves in posting the shutout, her sixth at Penn.
How it Happened
Penn dominated Sunday night's match right from the jump, outshooting MSM 9-0 in the first half. The Quakers had three particularly nice opportunities in the game's first half hour, with
Avery Chapel and Lucas just going wide with efforts and
Magali Capdevila getting a chance in front that was thwarted by Mount goalkeeper Abby Makela.
Penn was finally rewarded late in the half. Lucas got the ball up top and made a nice move to draw a foul right on the edge of the box. She then made the Mount pay, sliding her free kick around the left side of the defensive wall and past a diving Makela inside the far post.
The Quakers doubled their lead quickly in the second half.
Hailey Adamsky got the ball along the right wing, ran straight at her defender into the box, and tried to fire home a lefty shot. That was deflected, but Cook anticipated its path and picked it up near the left post. Coming back across the goal, she bodied the ball past Makela and then pushed it into an open goal with her right foot to make the score 2-0.
Penn put things on ice with just under 13 minutes to play. The Red and Blue moved the ball from the left wing into the middle where Capdevila got it about 25 yards out. It looked like she was going to shoot the ball but instead she fed Stevens who was streaking toward goal through MSM's defense. The freshman set herself up perfectly with the first touch in stride, then buried it with her left foot past goalkeeper Anna Joyce.
Kylie Emanuel also had an assist on the play.
From there, it was just a matter of what the final scoreline would be. It turned out to be 5-0, as Fuss scored Penn's fourth goal on a nice individual effort in the 86th minute and Matter closed things out by taking a pass from
Zula Root and curling a shot from outside the box over Joyce but under the crossbar in the final minute.
#FightOnPenn
