Penn State women’s lacrosse checked in at No. 25 in the ILWomen/IWLCA preseason poll on Monday morning. 

Penn State is one of six Big Ten teams ranked in the season’s first poll. Northwestern (No. 4), Maryland (No. 9), Rutgers (No. 17), Johns Hopkins (No. 20), and Michigan (No. 23) are all ranked ahead of the Nittany Lions. Ohio State, meanwhile, is the only conference team absent from the poll.

The Nittany Lions have some time before their season officially gets underway. The team opens the campaign by hosting a preseason scrimmage on Saturday, February 12, against Penn. True regular-season play begins on Wednesday, February 16, with a trip to Philadelphia to face Drexel.

Penn State will aim to rebound from a weak 4-9 season last spring. The Nittany Lions fell early in the postseason when Johns Hopkins knocked them out of the Big Ten Tournament quarterfinals. 

This spring, Penn State boasts 22 returning players, plus a graduate transfer and seven freshmen. The team lost the services of star midfielder Olivia Dirks when she transferred to UNC over the offseason.