Following a first-round win against Army on Saturday, No. 8 Penn State will face top-seeded Princeton in the quarterfinals of the NCAA Tournament.

The two sides met earlier in the season, with the Nittany Lions beating the Tigers 13-7. While it was a strong win for Penn State, it was Princeton’s first game of the season, and the Tigers lost just one other game the rest of the year.

For its impressive regular season, Princeton earned 10 All-Ivy and eight All-America selections. The list features Ivy League Defensive Player of the Year Jack Stahl and Ivy League Goaltender of the Year Ryan Croddick. Both were also named First Team All-Americans, along with midfielder Tucker Wade.

“They’re great players, and they earn respect. We know they’re trying to look for feeds first, but they’re very capable shooters, and we were going to put a lot of our attention on them and make them make some crazy plays,” defenseman Alex Ross said of Princeton.

Penn State has been competitive against high-ranked opponents all season. The Nittany Lions are 5-6 against top-10 teams, with recent wins against Maryland and Johns Hopkins in the Big Ten Tournament. While the Black Knights, whom Penn State played last, were No. 11 in the final regular season poll, the Nittany Lion defense held them to six goals.

The only critique those watching could have had was that the offense was not more dominant.

Penn State produced a total of 55 shots, 30 of which were on goal. The Nittany Lions also went 16-20 on face-offs, which gave them more time of possession. Ten goals felt underwhelming for the number of opportunities Penn State had.

“Shooting is probably going to be one of those things, but I do give [Sean] Byrne a lot of credit,” Jeff Tambroni said postgame. “Even though I think we hit him a ton, he made a lot of really good saves, and he put himself in a position based on his arc to make it very challenging.”

Army goaltender Sean Byrne was named the Patriot League Goalkeeper of the Year and an honorable mention All-American this season. He had 20 saves and a .667 save percentage against Penn State.

“It’s probably going to be more about getting our guys back in rhythm offensively, and then just continuing to work on really everything,” Tambroni said. “At this point in the season, you don’t want to change things, but you better keep getting better, because the competition continues to keep getting better.”

Despite the offense’s lackluster shooting performance, Hunter Aquino had another solid game in his return from injury. He scored three goals in the tournament opener, the most of any player on either team. He’s scored 12 goals in the last four games and led the team in goals in three of those games. He missed six weeks of play and is still Penn State’s leading scorer on the season.

Aquino said he is still dealing with some pain after the win, but that continuing to fight for his teammates is pushing him through it.

Princeton is Tambroni’s third time this season preparing for a repeat opponent. Penn State played Maryland and Johns Hopkins in the regular season and the Big Ten Tournament. The Nittany Lions won both rematches.

“Just about everything is going to be different. Throughout the course of the season, you may go one of two ways, but you go through so much growth throughout the course of the season that by the time you get through your scrimmages or that first portion of the schedule, you’re probably so much different, I think both teams will recognize that,” Tambroni said.

One of the challenges Penn State will face is shooting against Croddick. The Nittany Lions struggled to score against Army, and facing three All-Ivy League First Team players on the defense will be a challenge.

“We’ve got to continue to keep doing what we did, because it requires a lot of work, a lot of movement, a lot of collaboration to even get into those positions,” Tambroni said. “But I think the recognition is that it doesn’t get any easier in between the pipes, that we’re going to have to do our best to generate as many or more higher-scoring opportunities, and hope that we’re gonna have a little bit more success this week than we did last week in that regard.”

Tambroni mentioned the team is working on its shooting in the lead-up to the game. He said the players can’t overthink scoring opportunities. Confidence improves efficiency.

While Penn State prepares to take on one of the best teams in the country, the team has been in similar positions in the past. Having NCAA Tournament experience on the squad is beneficial in preparing to face the Tigers.

“We’ve talked a lot about it with our guys, that we want to take with us confidence that we know we can compete against Princeton,” Tambroni said. “But at the same time, we have to recognize how different it will be going into this game to make sure we’re prepared to play the game that we need to play to be successful.”