Every end is a new beginning.
Senior goalkeeper Annabel Austen is set to transfer to USC for her last year of college eligibility. Her decision comes after spending the last two seasons as Penn’s starting goalkeeper, racking up two first team All-Ivy selections and five Ivy League Defensive Player of the Week awards throughout her career.
“To have an extra year of eligibility is huge, because it gives me another year to keep getting minutes, keep getting film,” Austen said. “The Ivy League is a fantastic league, but it’s also a really good place to serve as a stepping stone to get to the next level. So going into the Big Ten, that’s one step up, and it’s gonna just get me into more of a pro environment, so that after that, I can keep playing.”
She will join a USC team that finished 10th out of 18 teams in the Big Ten conference this season and fell to Northwestern in the first round of the Big Ten Tournament. After completing next season with the Trojans, Austen is hoping to play professional soccer.
Austen is choosing to take advantage of her last year of college eligibility. She isn’t able to play another year at Penn because the Ivy League deems that a student-athlete uses their years of eligibility simply by being enrolled in college. However, NCAA rules allow student-athletes to complete four seasons of athletics in five years, and because Austen didn’t see any game action due to injury in her sophomore year, she has one year of eligibility left.
After she graduates from Penn in December, Austen will join the Trojans for spring training and test matches. USC is coming off of its second year in the Big Ten conference after leaving the Pac-12 ahead of the 2024-25 season.
In its first Big Ten season, the women’s soccer team finished first in the conference standings, making it to the semifinals of the Big Ten tournament and the quarterfinals of the NCAA tournament.
USC has a history of producing players who make it to the National Women’s Soccer League. In the 2025 NWSL Championship final this past Saturday, a combined five players on both teams’ rosters were USC graduates.
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“[USC has] this really strong pathway to pro, and it was just really clear to me, talking to the coaches, when I talked to them first, that they care a lot about individual development and people,” Austen said.
When Austen first came to Penn, she was the backup goalkeeper behind then-junior Laurence Gladu, who also went on to transfer to USC for her last year of college eligibility.
After Gladu’s departure, Austen became the starting goalkeeper for the Quakers and made an immediate impact. She allowed 33 goals and made 215 saves throughout her Penn career.
Austen’s senior season at Penn was her best one yet. She played in 12 out of 15 games, missing three due to injury, but improved on her standout junior season. Austen only allowed 13 total goals, or 1.17 goals per match, and had a save percentage of 0.814. Additionally, she recorded four shutouts in her 12 matches.
“Penn soccer taught me a lot. If you look at our record, I wouldn’t say it was easy,” Austen said. “But it definitely taught me the importance of culture and family, and at the end of the day, this team, these 30 girls, are my family to my core.”
“I’m very grateful for my experience and also very excited for the next step,” Austen added.
