The Penn State men's soccer team finds itself in an unusual position tonight in two respects.
First, the Nittany Lions find themselves as the lower ranked of two Keystone State schools. Second, they can be considered the underdog in a home contest.
The No. 23 Lions (10-3-1) will go against one of the better teams they will face this season when they play Lehigh tonight at 7 p.m. at Jeffrey Field.
The Mountain Hawks come into play tonight as the No. 18 team in the nation and they have won their last seven matches. They sport an 11-2 record and a great offensive force in junior Evan Bruno, who leads the team with nine goals and 23 points.
Lehigh may be the higher-ranked team but Penn State has a good reason to feel as though it should take home the win — home field advantage.
"I don't think that any team is really considered the favorite when they come play us here," senior co-captain Derek Potteiger said.
Tonight's game is important to the Lions for a few different reasons, but it may be the most important to seniors such as Potteiger. It will be the last game this current group of seniors will play on their home turf unless they are given the chance to host a game in the NCAA Tournament.
"I'm definitely thinking about it," Potteiger said. "I have spent the last four years of my life playing here. It is definitely something I will never forget."
Added to the motivation the home game will give to the seniors is the motivation the team will have of playing a regionally ranked team. Freshman defender Kenji Treschuk said that this game is big because the other team is in Penn State's region and it is huge for the regional rankings.
Treschuk is part of impregnable wall that the Mountain Hawks may be running into tonight. The Lions have given up only one goal in their last four games and that score was an own goal, which went off of a Penn State player.
Treschuk said that the recent defensive dominance is a result of the defenders getting to know each other's style better.
"Our back four is playing extremely well right now," Treschuk said. "We're getting to know all of our idiosyncrasies so we know how to read off of each other's movements."
The Lions will need that defensive cohesion if they expect to come out with the win tonight. Although according to the rankings Lehigh is the favorite, the Lions are very confident coming into the contest.
Actually, the Mountain Hawks may wish that they were the underdog.
"If they are considered the favorite then that's great," Potteiger said.
"I love being an underdog."
