At 5:50 p.m. tomorrow, the Penn State men's soccer team will leave its locker room for Jeffrey Field for the final time this season and perhaps the final time in senior co-captain David Walters and Brian Devlin's careers.

There won't be any red carpet, but the trip that will take the Nittany Lions to its match vs. Hartwick College at 7 p.m. will still be special.

"I think it'll be just as exciting as the first game I ever played at Jeffrey Field," Walter said.

Walters has said it will be sad coming onto the field for the final time. But despite it being emotionally charged, neither said it being Senior Day would distract them from the task of winning and running the table the team's final seven games.

"You always want to go out and show your best in any game, but especially this one," Devlin said. "I know we need to win. We're the underdogs. I'm pretty focused on the game right now."

Though Penn State (9-6-2, 6-0 Big Ten) has not lost a conference game this season or a game in a month, they could be considered the underdogs. Hartwick (10-4-1, 4-1-0 Atlantic Soccer Conference) is ranked No. 11 and has beaten then-No. 6 St. John's University. So, they're good.

"Yeah, well, on paper," Devlin said. "According to rankings, yes. But we'll see."

Hartwick's most recent game was an embarrassing loss to Philadelphia University, who is 5-11-1 playing in the Atlantic Soccer Conference and has one win in its last eight games. But that still doesn't take away from the importance of the game.

"They have something to prove if they can come in here and beat us," Penn State men's soccer coach Barry Gorman said. "It gives them more credibility to making the tournament. They've got a chance to redeem themselves. They can do it here, now."

To have a Senior Day win would give Walters and Devlin something to smile about, but getting to 10 wins may be more significant -- a nice, round number in the eyes of the committee which hands out NCAA at-large bids.

Coaches polls and outside rankings are not factored into the NCAA tournament committee's decisions, but a win for either team in this game will look favorable to regional advisory committees, who give reports to the overall committee.

Gorman said this is a playoff-type game as well as a must-win. Losing the game could mean the end of the season, and he said that's got to be in the players' mindset.

"It's not a matter of being fearful of [losing], it's just being realistic and saying, 'You know, our destiny is at our own feet,' " he said.

In order to get that win, however, they'll have to play what Devlin said will be a physical game. He cited Hartwick's roster of foreign players -- 14 of its 32 players hail from Scotland, England, Canada and Italy -- as a source of that style of play, adding that foreign players tend to play this way.

Add that to the pressure of a mutual must-win game, and the outcome will likely be a chippy game.

"They'll be coming out at 120 percent, throwing ankles, feet, anything to get at us," Walters said. "It's getting to the point where every game could be your last opportunity."