Penn State ready to battle for national title

CARY, N.C. The Penn State’s women’s soccer team unexpectedly finds itself on the other side of a home-field advantage after enjoying three Big Ten Conference Tournament matches and the first four NCAA Tournament rounds at Jeffrey Field.

The No. 6-ranked Nittany Lions (21-3-2) face No. 20 Duke (14-4-5) in the Blue Devils’ backyard at noon Sunday in a College Cup final. Duke wasn’t expected to last this deep into the NCAA Tournament to take the field at WakeMed Soccer Park.

Officially, WakeMed Soccer Park is a neutral site, but geographically this suburban town is 19 miles from Duke’s Durham campus. And that’s not taking into account Blue Devils fans sprinkled throughout Tobacco Road.

In the College Cup Friday semifinals, the Penn State-Rutgers and Duke-Florida State matches drew a record crowd of 11,676 fans. It was the largest crowd for the seven College Cups (four women, three men) hosted by WakeMed.

“Walking into that stadium last night rivaled any atmosphere that I’ve been in during my career,” said ninth-year Penn State coach Erica Walsh, who was an assistant coach on the U.S. national team at the 2008 Beijing Olympics and guided the Nittany Lions to a 2012 College Cup runner-up finish. “As a head coach, it was the best atmosphere and environment I’ve been a part of.”

The crowd saw the Nittany Lions beat their Big Ten rival 2-0 in the first game, but most fans attended the nightcap to see the Blue Devils upset the defending national champions and their ACC rival by the same score.

Nevertheless, Walsh and her players, who remained on site to watch the second game, are embracing the atmosphere despite the fan count naturally expected to favor Duke.

“The crowd is what makes the environment in the end,” said Penn State senior Raquel Rodriguez, a first-team All-American. “It doesn’t matter if it’s for Duke or Penn State. This is like a party for soccer and as a soccer player playing with everyone watching, it’s the best feeling in the world. I think wanting to be here is being a part of that environment.”

The Nittany Lions will welcome as many “Park Avenue Army” voices as possible. They say they heard them in their Rutgers victory. So will the Big Ten, you could say.

Penn State and Duke are both seeking their first national title. For Penn State, it is only the Nittany Lions’ second championship match. They were the 2012 runner-up to North Carolina in a 4-1 loss.

The Big Ten College Cup appearances of Penn State and Rutgers bumped the conference’s total to only the seventh and eighth trips overall. But of those seven, five belong to Penn State (1999, 2002, 2005, 2012 and 2015) and one to second-year Big Ten member Rutgers this year. The only other three trips by historic Big Ten schools are by Ohio State (2011) and Wisconsin (1988 and 1991).

But Walsh says the Big Ten is improving overall and the competition helped prepare her team for the NCAA. She pointed out five Big Ten teams won their first-round NCAA matches.

Duke is playing its third NCAA final after runner-up finishes in 2011 and 1992. Not long ago a national title seemed unlikely. The Blue Devils weren’t even invited to the ACC Tournament with a regular season record of 9-5-5 overall and 4-3-3 in the ACC. The four-team ACC Tournament, played at WakeMed, was won by Florida State.

But Duke, a young team similar to Penn State, gained an NCAA at-large berth and got hot at the right time. The first two NCAA rounds were 5-0 over James Madison at home and 2-0 over Florida Gulf Coast at Gainesville, Fla. Duke then beat No. 5-ranked Florida, 2-1, at Gainesville and No. 3 Stanford, 1-1, (3-2 PKs) at Stanford.

Duke second-team All-American Christina Gibbons, a local product from Raleigh Cardinal Gibbons, said the Blue Devils felt a boost from the Friday night crowd.

“Growing up here, training here and playing here felt surreal to be on a stage like this,” she said. “I had never played (in the stadium field); just the fields around it. It was pretty special.”

This story was originally published December 5, 2015 at 7:07 PM with the headline "Penn State ready to battle for national title."