Penn State women’s soccer’s regular-season finale has a lot of implications.

Ahead of the Big Ten Tournament next week, the Nittany Lions missed their opportunity to clinch a spot last Sunday when they lost to Indiana. Now, they are in danger of missing the Big Ten Tournament for the first time in their history, with 10 out of 18 teams earning a spot.

Despite that, Penn State controls its destiny ahead of its regular-season finale against Ohio State. Heading into this game, they are in ninth place with 14 points, one point ahead of 10th-place USC, and two points ahead of Michigan and Nebraska, who are tied for 11th. The other team that is also in contention is Indiana, in 12th with 11 points and three points behind the blue and white.

Due to that, the Nittany Lions have one job to do to clinch their spot: win. If they come up short against the Buckeyes, they will have to depend on other results that will be played on Decision Sunday. Penn State head coach Erica Dambach is emphasizing the importance of embracing all the adversity they have faced this season to fully focus on the task at hand on Sunday.

“The [team] has done a good job of taking all the lessons from the season, adding it to our armor, and trying to weaponize it as much as we can,” Dambach said. “We can use all the adversity to make us stronger, or it can be our demise, and there’s only one choice. So, the mentality right now is to go beat Ohio State.”

Inconsistency has been a huge theme for Penn State in the Big Ten this season and is the reason why they are in this position. After they started conference play with a dominant win over Maryland, they went on a winless streak that stretched three games, including back-to-back losses. This led them from being the No. 8 team in the country to unranked in the span of two weeks.

The Nittany Lions responded with crucial back-to-back road wins over Northwestern and Rutgers that put them in the prime position at 10 points to clinch early with five games to go. However, the team’s inconsistencies became apparent once again.

They went winless in their final homestand of the regular season, losing to Washington and tying against last-place Oregon, which remains winless. Even though they beat Purdue to give themselves a clinching opportunity, they couldn’t capitalize on it as they lost to Indiana for the first time in 29 years, putting them in a “win and in” scenario against Ohio State. Despite all the challenges that the Nittany Lions have faced this season, Dambach and her team are embracing the opportunity to feel this type of pressure heading into Sunday.

“The reality is that’s what the NCAA Tournament is, so why not get an opportunity to feel that type of pressure and one-and-done type of mentality,” Dambach said. “Our job is to go and win this game on Jeffrey Field. We’ve got everything ahead of us still; we control our destiny with it, we’ve talked about it, embraced it, and earned it.”

Ohio State will be a huge test for Penn State. Last season, they dominated the Nittany Lions in the regular-season finale at home. While Ohio State came eight votes short of being ranked in the latest poll, the team has been ranked for most of the season and has three more points than Penn State in conference standings. Dambach said that she’s impressed with this Ohio State team and that the Nittany Lions have a chip on their shoulder due to last season’s loss.

While this game will serve as the end of the regular season, this will also serve as the White Out game for Penn State. Dambach acknowledged that playing on Jeffrey Field on a White Out is incredibly special and has a certain magic to it. However, given the game’s implications, she urged people to come out to support the team.

“I would ask and urge people to come out and join the White Out. The White Out is only special when people participate in it,” Dambach said. “I think especially in times of challenge, when teams are trying to find their form, it’s that much more important that we feel the community and the students come out and support us. So, make that our 12th man.”