Nov. 3, 2016
By Zach Reagan, GoPSUsports.com Student Staff Writer
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - Penn State men's soccer heads into postseason competition with a recent host of wins to end the regular season and knowing exactly what's at stake as they look ahead.
Senior team captain Connor Maloney put postseason in the simplest of terms.
"It's do or die," said Maloney. "You lose you're done."
The Nittany Lions (8-7-2) open Big Ten Tournament play when they travel to take on No. 15 Michigan State (12-4-1) Sunday at 1 p.m. Penn State will play against the Spartans, a familiar foe, for the second time this season and the third time in as many years in the Big Ten Tournament. Penn State holds a two-game winning streak as the Nittany Lions beat the Spartans 2-1 in the Big Ten Tournament last year. Most recently, Penn State won 1-0 in double overtime on Oct. 15 as senior defender Robby Sagel notched the game winning header to knock off then-No. 19 Michigan State.
Through the ebbs and flows of the grueling regular season against stiff competition, Penn State has been resilient and shown they can beat some of the best teams in the country. The hard-fought regular season victory over Michigan State was amid a five-match home unbeaten streak before dropping a match to Northwestern in the regular season finale.
"We feel that we can make a run," said Maloney. "We learned another lesson against Northwestern. We've shown that we can take those lessons and get better from them. We're a very good team and we've shown it a couple times throughout the season, not consistently enough but we're going to the postseason feeling good about ourselves."
Head coach Bob Warming knows it will be a challenge to get a road win against a talented Spartans team, but his team is filled with confidence. Michigan State is yet to surrender a loss at home but it helps the team's confidence knowing that they can beat them, per Warming. Beating a team twice is also another challenge.
"Our preparation has been good," said Warming. "This team is ready to go on the road. Sometimes at the end of the year you're not ready to go on the road because the travel schedule has been so hard."
Warming plans to adjust with the addition of more visualization drills and better monitoring of hydration. Not only is Warming changing a few preparation tactics, the Nittany Lions must adapt to Michigan State's firm playing surface. Aside from the playing surface, the Big Ten Tournament requires playing with a Wilson ball, different from the Nike ball Penn State is used to playing with. The Nittany Lions trained with the Wilson ball this week to get a feel for it.
"I was concentrating on getting guys to hit the ball harder," said Warming. "It doesn't feel off your foot like a Nike or Adidas ball. You have to hit it harder to get it there."
One thing won't be changed, the philosophy of continuing offensive pressure. Constant offensive chances are a team strength with the quickness of the forwards but they're looking for more balls to get behind opponent goalkeepers. Per Maloney, Penn State had 57 entries into the penalty area in their last game against Northwestern, and the Nittany Lions look to do the same against Michigan State.
"We're going to play it like we played the last game against them (Michigan State)," said Maloney. "Attacking wise, we're going to throw guys forward. We have been getting a lot of opportunities but not connecting on them. Hopefully we can get a couple (goals)."
When the offensive struggled, the back line held strong even with changes in the lineup throughout the season. Robby Sagel, a keystone of the defense repeated the same message about the Sunday's game plan as fellow senior Maloney did.
"Our game plan isn't changing too much just making some tweaks to improve on little things that we struggled with against Northwestern," said Sagel.
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