After Penn State women’s soccer finished the regular season with a 9-3-5 record, the Nittany Lions enter the Big Ten Tournament as the No. 6 seed.

Penn State and head coach Erica Dambach have the opportunity to win the program’s first Big Ten championship since 2022, but the path won’t be easy.

Penn State opens the tournament against No. 3 Purdue (15-2-2, 9-2-1 Big Ten), the No. 16 team in the country.

The two teams met on October 3 in a 2-2 draw, but both have changed significantly since. Since the first matchup, Penn State has lost only one game, picked up a ranked win, and spent multiple weeks ranked in the top 25.

Dambach said the team has had its eyes on the Boilermakers since the October 3 matchup, and the Nittany Lions are ready to prove they are better than the 2-2 draw showed.

“If you asked this team who they wanted to play again, they would have said Purdue,” Dambach said Monday. “They very much feel like there’s unfinished business. I think they walked off the field with that tie, very disappointed.”

Revenge game or not, Penn State will have to get past a talented roster that placed six players on All-Big Ten teams Tuesday.

Big Ten Forward of the Year Jaiden Anderson will provide an extremely difficult test for a terrific Penn State defense, even if the Nittany Lions are familiar with her game. She had 18 goals and six assists in 19 games with the Boilermakers this season.

If the Nittany Lions beat Purdue, they will move on to the semifinals, where they will play the winner of No. 2 UCLA (14-4-2, 9-2-1 Big Ten) and No. 7 Wisconsin (10-4-4, 6-3-3 Big Ten).

Penn State didn’t play either team during the regular season, but Wisconsin could present a much easier second game for the Nittany Lions.

UCLA is the No. 10 team in the country and has looked very dangerous throughout conference play.

The Bruins’ only two conference defeats came at the hands of No. 5 Michigan State and Iowa. The team has leaned on a stout defense all season, but especially so recently. In its last 10 games, UCLA has allowed just five goals, three of those in the last two matches.

A stout defense does not mean a lack of offense, however. Kara Croone leads the Bruins’ attack, finishing the regular season with eight goals and one assist for 17 points.

The Bruins have also eliminated the Nittany Lions in the last two Big Ten Tournaments, potentially adding a mental aspect to the rematch.

While Wisconsin comes into the tournament on a four-game unbeaten streak, the Badgers offer much less of a test for the Nittany Lions.

Regardless of who it draws, if Penn State wins its semifinal match, the Nittany Lions will move on to the championship game. They have played all four teams on the other side of the bracket, but have only recorded a win against No. 4 Michigan State (13-3-2, 9-3).

Penn State lost to the fifth seed, Washington (12-2-4, 7-2-3 Big Ten), 1-0 on the road earlier in the season. The Nittany Lions also tied No. 8 Michigan (7-5-5, 5-5-2 Big Ten) on October 25.

If that side of the bracket is chalked up, Penn State would get a rematch with the top team, Ohio State (15-1-1, 11-1 Big Ten). The Nittany Lions opened conference play against the Buckeyes and lost 1-0.

Ohio State is the No. 3 team in the country, and its only Big Ten loss was to No. 2 UCLA.

For Penn State to make a run to the championship game, stars Aubrey Kulpa and Paige Kalal will need to bring their absolute A-game. Kulpa and Kalal lead the team in goals and points by a large margin and need to have a good tournament for Penn State to have a chance.

The Big Ten Tournament is hard to win, but Dambach brings plenty of experience, with five tournament championships at Penn State already.

The team is also bringing momentum into the tournament, coming off a 4-0 win over Indiana and a ranked win over Michigan State.

The Nittany Lions will begin their hunt for another piece of hardware against Purdue on Thursday at 8 p.m. at Energizer Park in St. Louis, Missouri. Folks who can’t attend can watch on Big Ten Plus.

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