The No. 21 Boston University field hockey team will head to the nation's capital region this weekend to kick off Patriot League play and take on another top-10 opponent.
The Terriers (4-2) will visit American (3-3) on Saturday (Sept. 15) at noon in a Patriot League opener that features the only two schools who have claimed the conference title over the past five seasons.
On Sunday (Sept. 16), BU will take on No. 6 Penn State (4-2) in a neutral-site contest at the University of Maryland. Game time in College Park is set for 1 p.m.
Saturday's contest will be streamed live on the Patriot League Network while Sunday's game will be on BTN Plus thanks to Maryland's video staff.
BU will look to carry over the momentum built last weekend in Illinois, where it posted a 4-3 overtime win at then-No. 9 Northwestern and a 2-1 triumph over Miami.
Most recently, American fell to a pair of ranked opponents at the Terrapin Invitational on Sept. 8-9, dropping a 5-2 contest to then-No. 17 Harvard before a hard-fought 1-0 loss against then-No. 12 Delaware.
The Eagles' top scorer thus far this season is sophomore Carlotta Borcherding, who boats team highs of eight points and four goals. Freshman Georgia Davies (3g, 1a) and senior Rafaela Rubas (2g, 3a) – the Patriot League Preseason Offensive Player of the Year – have put up seven points each and senior Annika Groschinski has a team-best four assists.
Senior Maura Jacobs has played every minute in goal for the Eagles through six games and sports a 2.09 goals-against average and a .764 save percentage.
The Terriers are 10-3 in 13 meetings with American including wins in their past two visits to Washington D.C.
Penn State used a second-half comeback to earn a 3-2 road win over No. 22 Ohio State on Friday and move to 4-2 on the year. The Nittany Lions also have wins over Virginia, Temple and Kent State.
Senior Aurelia Meijer leads a balanced PSU scoring attack with eight points on three goals and a pair of assists. Classmate Emily Klingler (3g, 1a) and freshman Anna Simon (3g) have added seven and six points, respectively. In all, 10 PSU players have scored at least one goal this season.
Senior goalkeeper Jenny Rizzo has started all six games and has impressive numbers in both save percentage (.771) and goals-against average (1.41).
This will be the first-ever regular-season meeting between BU and Penn State. They met only one other time as the Nittany Lions posted a 3-0 win at home in the 1991 NCAA quarterfinals.
Sunday's contest will feature two of the winningest coaches in NCAA field hockey history as BU's
Sally Starr (473) and PSU's Char Morett-Curtiss (521) have combined for 994 wins and rank sixth and fourth, respectively, in career wins at the Division I level.
