[media-credit name=’Derek Montgomery’ align=’alignnone’ width=’648′][/media-credit]After finally getting over the hump against a strong Wisconsin-Milwaukee side on Wednesday night, the Wisconsin men’s soccer team (4-6-0, 0-1-0) hopes that its strong play of late can translate into more success against the No. 9-ranked Nittany Lions of Penn State (5-1-4, 0-1-0) when the two teams square off Sunday afternoon at the McClendon Soccer Complex. The Badgers will be looking to translate some of their newfound confidence into success against a Nittany Lion team full of class.

“[The win over UWM] gives our guys confidence in the fact that they know they can beat a very good team,” assistant coach Jon Szczepanski said. “[The Badger players] have confidence in their abilities and the way things are going now, and they have confidence in each other.”

While the all-time series stands at 10-6-1 in favor of Penn State, Wisconsin can take some solace, if not confidence, in the fact that last year’s tilt went to the Badgers 1-0.

The Nittany Lions come into the game with a 0-1 record in the Big Ten thanks to a loss to defending national champs Indiana. The two Big Ten powers battled to a 2-1 finish with the Hoosiers being the better of the two teams that day. A trip to Evanston, Ill., to face the high-octane offense of Northwestern could potentially lead to a very angry 0-2 Penn State team coming to Madison in search of their first Big Ten win.

Wisconsin, however, will also be in search of their first conference victory as Ohio State tripped them up in the opener.

What concerns the Badgers is the Nittany Lions’ ability with the ball.

“Penn State is so explosive offensively, they’re a high-scoring team, we may have to score a couple of goals as one may not be enough,” Szczepanski said. “I’d like one goal to be enough, but it probably won’t be.”

Penn State features one of the league’s top scorers in forward Chad Severs. The Nittany Lion senior has notched five goals on the year to go along with his two assists. His 1.2 points per game average is good enough for eighth best in the conference.

Severs is not alone on the attack though, as sophomore forward Simon Omekanda has been able to notch three goals this season.

The Lions strength is in their midfield where all-Big Ten performer Brian Devlin resides. The junior is one of the team’s leaders, often setting up the offensive attack. He is joined in the midfield by two experienced players in Joe Zewe and David Walters. The fourth midfielder is highly-touted freshman Richard Costanzo. Last season’s Pennsylvania state player of the year has immediately contributed to the cause scoring two goals and leading the team with four assists.

Defensively, Penn State has plenty of experienced players like seniors Pasi Karppinen and Anthony Calvano. The group has helped to limit the opposition’s chances throughout the year.

In goal for the Nittany Lions is freshman Conrad Taylor. The NSCAA player of the year in high school has stepped right in and become the starter in his first season with the program. In that time, all he has done is record a 1.05 goals against average and a .717 save percentage. He has helped the team record three shutouts already this season.

The Badgers come into this game still looking to their young guns to pick up the slack left by the absence of senior striker Jed Hohlbein. During Hohlbein’s absence, Wisconsin has struggled to find the net. Although a two-goal outburst against UWM may be a sign of things to come.

Defensively Wisconsin will look to build on their strong showing during the past two games. With the kind of offensive weapons that Penn State will bring to the game, the backline players will have to play some of their best team soccer of the season.

“We’ve had good games from the guys in the back,” Szczepanski said. “We just haven’t put it all together for 90 minutes.”

The Badgers will have to put it together Sunday if they hope to pull off the upset.