Postseason wins are never easy to come by, but it doesn’t get much harder than this for the Illinois soccer team.

After winning in penalty kicks following a 2-2 tie after regulation, the Illini defeated fourth-seeded Minnesota 3-2 in the first round of the Big Ten Tournament on Wednesday. The Illini will battle top-seeded Penn State on Friday in the semifinals. The two teams met last season in the finals of the tournament, with the Illini coming out on top 2-1 in overtime.

Their meeting earlier this season, though, was a different story. Despite being confident going in, Illinois was on the losing end of a 4-0 blowout. The Nittany Lions’ speed and ability to get behind the defense proved to be too much for the Illini to handle. But with three straight wins under their belts, the Illini are putting that loss in the past.

“They’re just really deep and they have a lot of athletic players,” senior forward Niki Read said, “But obviously every team in the country is beatable.”

Penn State, the heavy favorite to win the tournament, has won 15 straight regular season Big Ten titles. The Lady Lions boast two players, junior forwards Taylor Schram and Maya Hayes, who played on the under-20 U.S. women’s soccer team with junior Illini midfielder Vanessa DiBernardo. That team won the U-20 World Cup in Japan earlier this season.

“Certainly you have to contain them as best as you can. Their attacking personalities are dynamic and they have a lot of pace,” head coach Janet Rayfield said. “Then you have to put away the chances that you have. Iowa (which lost in the first round to Penn State) lost 2-0 in a game where they outshot Penn State 33-12. It really goes to show that you have to limit the chances they have and make the most of the ones that you get.”

One thing that Illinois has made a habit of this season is playing from behind. Its past two wins came after it was behind 2-0, and the team knows that it is not an ideal situation, especially in the postseason.

Because Penn State feeds on mistakes, the Illini will do what they can to refrain from digging themselves into a hole early. In the 11th minute against Minnesota, freshman defender Amy Feher was issued a red card, forcing the Illini to play a man down for the rest of the match. Rayfield said the team hopes to keep all 11 players on the field and will play at its hardest for all 90 minutes in an effort to not fall behind.

If it does happen again, though, Illinois knows that it still has a chance to come back to grab a win as it has done many times this season.

“I think our team has shown time and time again how well we can adapt to adversity,” Read said. “I think our team is so strong because we have had times this year in previous games where we’ve had to come back and we were able to do that.”

“We’ll fight from start to finish on Friday, and if that means we get ahead, that’s great, but if that means we’ve got to fight back from down, we’ll do that,” Rayfield said. “This team is just ready to fight.”

Charlie can be reached at [email protected].