(Photo Courtesy of Penn State Athletics)

The Penn State Nittany Lions are the 36th DI program to release its 2023 men’s lacrosse schedule. The Nittany Lions are coming off a 2022 campaign in which they went 3-11 overall and 1-4 in Big Ten play. Penn State saw its season end with a loss to Johns Hopkins in the Big Ten Quarterfinals.

Penn State’s 2023 slate features 12 games with six coming at home, five being true road games, and one neutral site contest. Penn State opens the season on February 4th at home agains Lafayette. They open Big Ten play on March 25th at Maryland.

Penn State’s 2023 Schedule

Date	Home	Away	Notes
2/4	Penn State	Lafayette
2/12	Villanova	Penn State
2/18	Penn State	Stony Brook
2/25	Yale	Penn State
3/4	Penn State	Penn
3/11	Cornell	Penn State
3/18	Penn State	Marquette	Levittown, N.Y.
3/25	Maryland	Penn State	Big Ten
4/1	Penn State	Ohio State	Big Ten
4/8	Penn State	Johns Hopkins	Big Ten
4/15	Michigan	Penn State	Big Ten
4/22	Penn State	Rutgers	Big Ten

New Opponents

Stony Brook

Teams Dropped

Bucknell

Key Games

2/12 @ Villanova: The second week of the season presents Penn State with its first road game and likely first big test for this new-ish looking, more veteran squad. Last season, the Wildcats got the best of the Nittany Lions with a 13-12 victory at Panzer. This will be the first chance to see exactly how this Penn State team, and especially its offense, looks and works with the new pieces. These two programs have played every year they have been able to since 2005. Penn State leads the all-time series 20-7.

2/25 @ Yale: Another early-season staple of Penn State’s schedule in recent years has been the Yale series. The two will go head to head in New Haven this spring. Last season, the Nittany Lions defeated the Bulldogs 10-6 in what turned out to be Penn State’s best win of the season. Aleric Fyock had 21 saves to help lead the way to victory.

4/15 @ Michigan: Penn State’s lone Big Ten victory last season came against the Michigan Wolverines, whom they defeated 9-8 in Friday night overtime thriller that saw Mac Costin put in the game-winner. With both the Nittany Lions and Wolverines looking to turn things around after poor seasons last spring, expect this to be another intense battle between these two.

4/22 vs Rutgers: The two Northeast Big Ten programs will go head to head during the final week of the regular season, which serves as the league’s “rivalry week.” Penn State almost pulled off an upset of the eventual Championship Weekend contender last season, falling to Rutgers 15-14 in overtime. Penn State led 14-11 early in the fourth quarter. Happening the last week of the season, this game could very well have serious postseason consequences and is going to be one Penn State wants to flip the outcome of from a year ago.