Nittany Lions prepared for Rutgers in women’s soccer College Cup

Erica Walsh was excited to see some unfamiliar faces.

The Penn State women’s soccer team was gearing up for the NCAA Tournament’s opening-round matchup with Albany, a program the Nittany Lions had never faced before.

Walsh said at the time that the postseason gave her squad an opportunity to play some new teams.

That was only the case in the first couple games, though.

After playing conference foe Ohio State and rival West Virginia in the third round and quarterfinals, respectively, the Nittany Lions will face another recognizable side in the NCAA Tournament semifinal. Penn State (20-3-2) and Big Ten counterpart Rutgers (19-3-3) will meet in the College Cup at 5 p.m. Friday in Cary, N.C. The game will air live on ESPNU.

It’ll be the third time this season that the Nittany Lions and Scarlet Knights square off. Penn State lost at Rutgers 1-0 on Oct. 18, but avenged themselves on Nov. 8 with a 2-0 triumph in the Big Ten Tournament championship game.

It’s tough to say if familiarity is an advantage or not for either side. Both Penn State and Rutgers feel that they’re different, and better, than when they last played.

“I feel as though we’re playing our best soccer of the season,” Walsh said. “We’re peaking at the right time.”

“I think we are going into the game playing some of our best soccer,” Rutgers coach Mike O’Neill said, according to the team’s website. “We are excited about the opportunity.”

Both coaches seemed to be echoing each other, but not without reason.

Penn State has won its last nine games with a goal margin of 28-3. Excluding its conference tournament loss to the Nittany Lions, Rutgers is undefeated in its last 14 games.

For Penn State, Walsh has harped on the play of her midfield and unified defense creating a recently unstoppable attack. The team has evolved into a cohesive, effective unit.

That wasn’t the case on Oct. 18. The Nittany Lions were outshot by Rutgers when they visited Piscataway, and of the nine attempts, only three landed on target.

It was a wake-up call, and the Nittany Lions haven’t been held scoreless since.

That high level of play has been reciprocated defensively. Penn State has six consecutive shutouts, including a lockdown performance the last time it faced Rutgers. In the Big Ten championship game, the Scarlet Knights managed five shots, and forced Nittany Lion goalkeeper Britt Eckerstrom to make just one save.

“You hear it all the time, the cliche that defense wins championships,” Walsh said. “From the beginning of the season to now, you’re looking at a completely different focus with this group.”

Rutgers boasts a dominant defense, too. In fact, the Scarlet Knights have the best goals against average in the country (.311).

On the season, Rutgers has tallied 19 shutouts in 25 games, and allowed multiple goals only twice — first, against Illinois on Sept. 24, and second, in its loss to Penn State.

“The last time we played them we learned a lot,” O’Neill said. “So from that point on, we’ve been stronger because it was a game we gave up two goals.”

The Scarlet Knights certainly have been stingier, as they have yet to allow a goal in the NCAA Tournament. That includes a shutout of Virginia, the No. 1 seed in Rutgers’ bracket and a team that averaged the second-most goals per game in the nation this year (3.17).

“That was just a masterful performance on Rutgers’ behalf,” Walsh acknowledged, “and we feel as though we play a very similar style of soccer to UVA, so some of the tweaks and changes they made in that match might apply to ours.”

Should Penn State defeat Rutgers, it’ll face yet another known opponent.

In the other semifinal matchup, a pair of ACC teams, Duke and Florida State, will take the pitch. Penn State tied Duke in double overtime on Aug. 28, and defeated Florida State in the 2012 College Cup.

“Fortunately, now we have experience playing teams multiple times,” Walsh said. “One of things that’s been great about the balance of this season is we’ve kind of hit all these different hurdles.”

As it pertains to Rutgers, the Nittany Lions tripped over that hurdle once before, only to clear it in their second try.

What will happen the third time around?

This story was originally published December 3, 2015 at 5:43 PM with the headline "Nittany Lions prepared for Rutgers in women’s soccer College Cup."