Last season, the Penn State men's soccer team had some trouble concentrating on its last few games and missed out on the NCAA Tournament.

This season the Nittany Lions have shown all the resolve in the world in their final games of the season.

The Lions won their fifth straight game on Saturday, defeating Old Dominion 3-0 in Norfolk, Va. The victory came in the Lions' final regular season game and may have been enough to clinch an appearance in the NCAA Tournament.

Currently ranked 23rd in the country, the Lions standing in the NSCAA/adidas poll should only improve after this past week. Along with Saturday's win the Lions were also able to beat the No. 18 Lehigh Mountain Hawks on Wednesday.

"One of our goals in the beginning of the season was to have a good win-loss record," senior forward Ken Lear said. "We have now done that."

The star of Saturday's game was once again senior co-captain Ricardo Villar. Villar scored two goals and he now has three in has last two games. His first goal opened up the scoring for the Lions and it came on a direct kick at 17:53. He then followed that goal up with a more conventional score in the second half, putting the ball in the net off a pass from Lear.

Villar has breathed some life into a Lions offense that has been struggling to score of late. Goalkeeper Ryan Sickman says that being able to put points on the board has been a big boost to the defense at the end of the season.

"Since I've been back in goal we have been very solid as a back four, but great defense only prevents losses," Sickman said. "It is nice to have the offense scoring of late and it helps us try harder to prevent the other team from putting the ball in the back of net."

The final goal of the game was a result of the play of two freshmen. Freshman defender Kenji Treschuk put the third goal on the board when he received a pass from fellow freshman Gabe Bernstein.

The play of the freshman class has been a major factor in Penn State's recent success and the older guys recognize that.

"They have been great," Lear said. "They have definitely filled some roles that had been vacated on the team."

The final five games were not as kind to Penn State last season as they have been this year. The Lions went 1-2-2 in those games and the contest that may have hurt the most was a loss to Hartwick in the final game of the season. That game might have been the one that kept the Lions out of the NCAA Tournament.

This year the Lions have been stellar at the end of their regular season slate. They got some revenge against Hartwick by defeating them 1-0. They were also able to end the season on a high note by winning Saturday. This win gives them some momentum going into their next challenge — the Big Ten Championships at Wisconsin.

"Ever since I have been here we have not had a streak like this going into Big Tens," Sickman said. "The momentum is definitely going to carry over."