His mother flew in all the way from Finland. She has never seen him play a soccer game at Penn State. Penn State tri-captain Jorma Makipaa didn't want to disappoint her.

And he didn't.

With the Big Ten Tournament being held at Penn State for the first time since 1996, the Nittany Lion men's soccer team (12-7, 3-3) has a whole lot to play for.

As the No. 4 seed in a seven-team tournament, the men know that in order to get an automatic invite to Dallas for the College Cup they're going to have to beat some good Big Ten teams.

They started out on the right foot yesterday afternoon.

The Lions welcomed back their head coach Barry Gorman, who has missed over one month due to surgery, as they controlled the entire game against the No. 5 seeded Wisconsin Badgers (9-10, 3-3) and beat the boys from Madison, 1-0.

Throughout the entire 90 minutes the winds howled across Jeffrey Field, holding up almost every ball that went more than ten feet in the air, but Penn State didn't let the weather affect them. Just 19 minutes into the game freshman midfielder David Walters placed a perfect cross right on the head of Makipaa and he made the Badger goalie pay as his shot found the back of the net.

"This is her first time in America," Makipaa said of his mother. "And it just happened today that, in front of her, I was able to score the goal."

The goal was Makipaa's first of the season.

That one goal was all that Penn State would need as its defense, led by senior captain Brent Jacquette made sure the Badgers wouldn't sneak anything by him. The Lions also wanted to give Wisconsin a taste of its own medicine.

Earlier this season Penn State traveled up north, only to be beaten by the Badgers, 2-1.

In that game, Jacquette sat out due to yellow card accumulation, and he showed Wisconsin what a difference one player could make as he single-handedly cleared ball after ball from inside the Penn State box.

"The missing ingredient that they obviously had today was Jacquette," Wisconsin head coach Jeff Rohrman said after the game.

"He was a very important piece for them today."

One of the few scary moments for Penn State came with about 17 minutes to play in the first half.

Sophomore forward Chad Severs, who leads the team in points, collided with Wisconsin goalie Eric Hanson. The game was stopped for about five minutes while Severs lay holding onto his left knee.

The crowd was completely silent until he eventually walked off the field.

Severs returned to action just minutes later.

Lions senior goalkeeper Ryan Sickman pitched his fourth shutout of the season while only facing 3 shots.

The win propels Penn State into the semi-finals where they will meet No. 1 seeded Indiana, at 5 p.m. today at Jeffrey Field, for the second time this season. The Hoosiers slid by Penn State in late September when a questionable foul was called on the Lions giving Indiana a penalty shot late in the game.

Indiana made short work of Penn State goalie Ryan Moate on the penalty shot and won the game 1-0.

The seniors on the Penn State team have never beaten Indiana, and they are hoping that they can break that trend today.

"It's my last chance," Makipaa said.

"I've never beaten them, but I think tomorrow will be that day."