Penn State women’s soccer’s regular season came to an end last week, and now, the team’s postseason journey will officially begin on Saturday.

After the Nittany Lions clinched a spot in the Big Ten Tournament with a regular-season finale win over Ohio State, they earned the No. 6 seed in this year’s tournament, meaning that they have a first-round bye before playing in the quarterfinals. However, standing in their way is a familiar opponent that they faced in last year’s Big Ten tournament: No. 3-seeded UCLA.

Last season, both teams faced each other in the quarterfinals of the Big Ten tournament, and UCLA eliminated Penn State. The Bruins went on to win the Big Ten tournament. Now, the blue and white will get the opportunity to get revenge against the defending champions in a rematch of last year’s Big Ten tournament quarterfinal. For that reason, Penn State head coach Erica Dambach feels that there is a revenge motivation for her team heading into this rematch.

“I think that we felt that against Ohio State. We were not happy with our performance last year against Ohio State, and I think that those who returned felt that,” Dambach said. “Something we felt last year is that too often we came out a little bit slow, too much respect, and while [UCLA] garner a ton of respect, I think we’ve got to get at them.”

This revenge motivation paid off for the Nittany Lions last week when their Big Ten tournament berth was on the line, as they went on to have one of their best performances of the season against Ohio State. Now, they will have to do the same against a UCLA team that has been strong defensively.

This season, UCLA finished as the No. 3 seed with six wins in Big Ten play and 10 wins in total. Right now, it is ranked No. 20 in the country, and a big reason for its success this season has been its defense. The Bruins have only allowed five goals in 17 games this season and haven’t let any of their opponents score more than one goal. In the process, all of UCLA’s 10 wins have come in shutouts.

The last time UCLA let an opponent score was in its loss against Wisconsin on October 9. It has lost four matches and tied three whenever it has allowed its opponent to score. That’s one of the reasons Dambach wants her team to be the aggressor from the start and play it “on the front foot.” Also, she talked about what impresses her about this UCLA team and what message she is preaching to her team.

“They are organized. They defend their box well, with a lot of numbers, so I think we’ve got to be patient in the attack,” Dambach said. “Teams are losing patience and allowing [UCLA] to outnumber them in the box, which I do think will be the case regardless. I do think we’ve got to be a bit more patient than we’ve seen from these other teams.”

Penn State heads this year’s Big Ten tournament with more momentum compared to a year ago. Last season, the team entered the tournament on a three-game losing streak as the No.10 seed, having to go through the first round. Despite beating Minnesota to earn that quarterfinal matchup against the Bruins, it had a quick turnaround as it had to play UCLA, which was the No. 2 seed and had a first-round bye, three days after beating Minnesota. This played a factor in last year’s outcome.

However, this time, both teams head into this year’s showdown having the same amount of rest due to their first-round byes, and the Nittany Lions are coming off one of their best 90-minute match performances of the season. Along with that, Dambach said that the team’s morale and confidence are very high heading into the tournament. For those reasons, she talked about how huge it was for her team to earn a first-round bye in this year’s tournament heading into Saturday.

“We know that the ability to recover from Thursday to Sunday and the amount of mileage that these players are playing and putting in, there’s going to be residual effects when you play Thursday and Sunday,” Dambach said. “To not deal with that is massive, especially at this point in the season when they already have a lot of miles logged on their bodies.”

Penn State will play its quarterfinal game against UCLA on Saturday, November 1, at 7:30 p.m. at Folk Field, located at Purdue University. The winner of this game will play the winner of the matchup between No. 2-seeded Michigan State and either No. 10-seeded USC or No. 7-seeded Northwestern in the semifinals on November 6. Folks can stream the match on BTN+.