Penn State Harrisburg women reaching new heights in history-making season

Winning isn’t new for Penn State Harrisburg’s women’s soccer team but with wins over No. 14 Christopher Newport and No. 11 Rowan last weekend the program is reaching new heights as one of 16 teams left in the Division III women’s tournament.

Led by head coach Brandon West – a national champion goalkeeper in his playing days at Messiah – the team has had a strong foundation and winning culture with six straight seasons of double digit wins to build on in a season where they’ve made waves with an upset win over Messiah and an attack that has averaged three goals a game.

“It’s such a great feeling to be able to play together as a team, grow the culture together, and be able to beat ranked teams that no one would have thought we would beat,” senior captain Diana Pon, the team’s leading goal-scorer said.

Pon has 18 goals and 12 assists this season but is one of 18 players on the team with at least one goal. That includes Kylie Yap, a junior defender from Voorhees, N.J. who scored one of the biggest goals in program history to beat Rowan 1-0 on Sunday.

“I think that goal really just solidifies for us that we can do this, we can beat anybody when we work together,” said Abigail Frew, a senior captain from Pine Grove, Pa. who scored a late winner of her own off a free kick from Pon on Saturday in a 2-1 win over Christopher Newport. “Playing double 90s on tired legs is a really hard thing to do and it just showed that everybody on the team is together.”

After a much deserved break on Monday, the team was back prepping for Saturday’s game against Mary Washington in Middlebury, Vermont. They’re one of just six teams from the region still alive in the men’s and women’s tournaments. Messiah has both teams alive, Rowan and Dickinson have their men’s teams in the Sweet 16 and Swarthmore is still left standing in the women’s tournament.

That four of the six teams left are from the Harrisburg area is an illustration of how strong the programs in and around the state capital are.

Penn State Harrisburg’s team has a number of players from the area and across the commonwealth too, which adds to the atmosphere at their games.

“The Penn State education appeals to a lot of people, and there’s a massive alumni network, so I think it gives us the ability to recruit and get players here,” said Brandon West. “It also helps that their parents can watch them play collegiately.”

Pon is one of the exceptions on the team as a Miami native who transferred to Penn State Harrisburg from Penn State Berks ahead of last season. She’s scored 27 goals in her two seasons in Harrisburg after scoring 20 in her first two college seasons and has 33 career assists.

She credits the coaching staff, which has an extensive history playing in big tournament games with West and younger brother Nick West, a former national player of the year and national champion at Messiah, and several other coaches with a long pedigree of playing and coaching.

“Just the experience that they have, I would say, definitely helps us as a team,” said Pon. “As a player, I trust them with their feedback and what they say because they’ve been here before and they know what it takes to win.”

Assistant Jared Odenbeck played in the Division national championship final with Wake Forest in 2016, Ryan Sipe was a Division 1 goalkeeper and Jessie Walker won a national title with Messiah in 2019, the last Division III women’s national championship won by a Pennsylvania school.

For Brandon, getting a chance to coach with his brother Nick has been both fun and rewarding while the coaching staff as a whole has helped to elevate the culture and the success of the team on and off the field.

“He’s my best friend so I love coaching with him and he knows my vision and knows how I want to play,” Brandon West said of his younger brother. “It takes a village so to have Nick and Jessie who have had similar experiences to me and to have Ryan and Jared who have different playing experiences really helps us to cover a lot of areas while also fully aligning with the playing model.”

The game model for Penn State Harrisburg has been an attractive one to watch with a free-flowing attack and players across the field contributing to their history-making season.

“If you watch us play we get so much better from the start of the year to the end of the year, just because of how we play,” Brandon West said. “We don’t just kick it and hope. That was the thing I was most proud of with the girls this past weekend. We played and won, doing it our way.”

For Pon and Frew, the chances to have their college careers extended another weekend and possibly more has been the biggest gift of the season.

“I’m honestly just looking forward to spending more time with my team,” Frew said. “This past weekend was so fun because we won, but when I look back at it, I think about the fun times that we had on the long bus trip and together at the hotel. These are unforgettable memories.”

Saturday’s game will be streamed live at 1:30 p.m.