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 The University of Wisconsin men's soccer team waited for its offense to arrive Friday afternoon, but it just never happened.
Now the Badgers will have to wait until Monday night to see if they did enough this season to earn an at-large berth in the NCAA tournament.
Junior midfielder Minh Vu scored in the 29th minute and Penn State held UW without a shot on goal in a 1-0 victory in the Big Ten Conference tournament semifinals in Ann Arbor, Mich.
The Nittany Lions (9-8-4) became the first No. 7 seed to advance to the final in the 20-year history of the tournament, and will play top-seeded Northwestern (10-4-5) on Sunday for the title and an automatic NCAA berth. The Wildcats ousted fourth-seeded Indiana 3-2 on penalty kicks following a 1-1 draw in the day's first semifinal. UW was seeking its third finals berth, following appearances in 1991 and '93.
Penn State lost all seven of its Big Ten matches during the regular season, including a 1-0 loss to the Badgers last Saturday in which UW scored on a penalty kick in the final minute of the second overtime.
Six days later, it was a different story.
Sophomore goalkeeper Max Jentsch (Hartland Arrowhead) kept the third-seeded Badgers (10-8-2) in the game during a first-half barrage by the Nittany Lions. Penn State outshot UW 15-1 in the opening 45 minutes, with Jentsch making four saves – and almost stopping what proved to be the lone goal.
Freshman defender Owen Griffith chested down a ball near the top of the box and found Vu on the left side, and his first-time, left-footed volley from 14 yards out got just over Jentsch's outstretched hands for his third goal of the season.
The Badgers generated more going forward in the second half and had a chance for an equalizer in the 61st, but freshman defender AJ Cochran's header off a corner kick by junior midfielder Tomislav Zadro sailed over Nittany Lions freshman keeper Andrew Wolverton and the goal. Wolverton posted his 12th shutout for Penn State, which ended up with a 21-5 advantage in shots.
UW came into the week 38th in the NCAA Ratings Percentage Index, which is used to help select the 26 at-large berths for the 48-team tournament. Earlier in the week, College Soccer News projected the Badgers as one of the final teams in the field, meaning UW likely is on the bubble. Looking at the CSN scenarios and explanations, it would appear that Ohio State's 2-0 loss to Penn State in Wednesday's quarterfinals helped the Badgers' cause. UW hasn't qualified for the NCAA tournament since winning the national championship in 1995.
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