Oct. 23, 2013
By Matt Allibone, GoPSUsports.com Student Staff Writer
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - Of the many things that the Penn State women's soccer team takes pride in, their streak of consecutive Big Ten regular season titles is towards the top of the list.
With a three game road stretch against Big Ten foes to end the regular season and with a 6-2-0 in-conference record, the Nittany Lions know it is imperative to finish their schedule with three straight wins in order to have a chance extend their streak of titles.
"It's something that's always on our minds because we want to uphold that tradition," said junior midfielder Kori Chapic. "We take it one year at a time and right now we're taking it one game at a time."
The Lions will begin their away stretch with two games this weekend, when they take on Iowa Friday night before traveling to Big Ten leader Nebraska for a Sunday afternoon contest.
Although the Lions will miss of the comfort of Jeffrey Field, the squad feels focused and relaxed heading into their most important road trip of the season thus far.
"Obviously this is a big road trip with two huge games that will tell us a lot about where we'll be going into the postseason," said redshirt junior midfielder Emily Hurd. "We had one of our most dedicated and focused training sessions of the season today [Tuesday] and we'll look to do that again tomorrow before heading out."
Coming off of two huge Big Ten wins against Ohio State and Illinois this past weekend, head coach Erica Walsh feels her team is in a good position to make a late season push.
Having outscored their opponents 9-2 over their past two wins, Walsh believes the Nittany Lions have rediscovered the grove that saw them win nine games in a row earlier in the year.
"I think that we took steps forward and got better this past weekend," said Walsh. "They gave themselves a boost going into these upcoming games."
The aspect of their game that the Lions are happiest to have fortified is their offense, which exploded last weekend after two straight scoreless games.
Still, Chapic stressed that the team is still looking for ways to improve their attack, since the goals will be harder to come by on the road.
"Scoring nine goals is one of the highlights of last weekend and it shows us the things that we're doing right," said Chapic. "We can still look at things that we can improve on the offensive side because it's only going to make us better from here on out."
Now facing their third weekend with two games on the road this season, Walsh feels that her crew has a better understanding of what to expect when they step onto opposing turf.
The biggest lesson that the Nittany Lions have learned from earlier road trips is that it is vital for them to get off to a fast start, especially after their last road stretch ended with them splitting games with Wisconsin and Minnesota.
"The last trip (to Minnesota) taught us that we can't come out and play poorly," said Walsh. "We need to change some of the things that we did and we'll learn form those mistakes."
With only one more game after this weekend before the Big Ten Tournament kicks off, the Blue and White are using their last couple of regular season games to get ready for the postseason.
Since the short amount of time they have between games this weekend will be similar to the layoffs they have in the Big Ten Tournament, the Lions feel as though they will be well prepped physically when postseason action rolls around.
"The biggest thing with the Big Ten Tournament is learning how to handle your body," said Chapic. "Traveling so much this weekend will help prepare us for that."
Along with learning how to keep their legs fresh, this upcoming weekend will also help the Lions get into the necessary postseason mindset, since they are looking at their remaining games as must win-contests.
"Right now we just have to think about ourselves and getting two wins against two very good opponents," said Hurd. "Hopefully we get the kind of results that keeps us on an upward swing going into the [postseason]."
Not only are Hurd and her teammates aware of their streak of Big Ten regular season titles, they know that the rest of their upcoming opponents are also mindful of them and thirsty to end the Nittany Lions reign of dominance.
For Penn State, playing under such pressure and scrutiny is simply a part of the territory that comes with being in the program.
"It's kind of hard not to get everyone's best game when you have a reputation like ours," said Hurd. "It provides us with challenges, but it prepares us moving forward."