STATE COLLEGE — Bree Bednarski traded up when she transferred from one nationally ranked Big Ten school to another, but she will have to wait before taking the field for the No. 3 Penn State Nittany Lions field hockey team.
The sophomore from Wyoming Area is sitting out the 2017 season. Bednarski is “redshirting this season to satisfy NCAA transfer rules,” Penn State athletic department spokesman Jeff Smith confirmed in an e-mail Friday.
Bednarski contributed as a freshman at the University of Michigan, which is currently ranked seventh.
“We’re excited to have Bree join the field hockey team,” Penn State head coach Charlene Morett-Curtiss said in a press release announcing the transfer earlier this summer. “I think she feels comfortable at Penn State with her sister (Drew) being on campus and being closer to home, I think it’ll help her find a comfort level.”
Bednarski, a former member of the U.S. Under-17 National Team, played in all 20 games and made two starts as a freshman at Michigan before returning to Pennsylvania.
“My family is close and it seems like a really great school with the atmosphere on campus,” Bednarski said in the release.
Bednarski scored 127 goals at Wyoming Area, including a state record 67 as a senior in 2015.
