Just days after being crowned Big Ten regular-season champions, Penn State women’s soccer improved three spots to No. 6 in this week’s United Soccer Coaches poll.

In addition to the top 10 United Soccer Coaches ranking, the Nittany Lions received a No. 15 rank in the TopDrawerSoccer poll.

The Nittany Lions won their two road matches this past week by a combined score of 4-0. It began with a rather lethargic 1-0 defeat of Iowa thanks to Ally Schlegel’s first-half goal.

Penn State clinched the conference regular-season title on Sunday with a relatively comfortable win at Nebraska, 3-0. Frankie Tagliaferri, Rachel Wasserman, and Elle Kershner were all on target for the Nittany Lions in the last regular-season match away from Jeffrey Field.

The only teams to be ranked ahead of the Nittany Lions are, in order, Florida State, UNC, TCU, West Virginia, and UCLA. Duke, previously ranked in the top five all year, dropped behind the Nittany Lions into No. 7.

Two teams from the Big Ten joined the Nittany Lions in this week’s poll. Ohio State entered the rankings at No. 23, closely followed by the fading Rutgers Scarlet Knights (No. 24). Wisconsin and Michigan also received votes.

Penn State has two weeks before the Big Ten Tournament begins. In that time, the Nittany Lions will play their Senior Day matchup against Maryland at noon Saturday at Jeffrey Field.

Following the clash with the Terrapins, Penn State will play in the Big Ten “Wildcard Weekend” between April 8-11. Each team will play one or two games against other Big Ten teams, but the games will act as non-conference contests.

Beyond that, the top-10 Nittany Lions will prepare for the Big Ten Tournament and NCAA Tournament, for which a bid is more or less locked up.