With a 5-2 record and a couple of especially good wins, the Penn State Nittany Lions look like a team that can contend for a national championship.

Of course, anyone who hasn’t had their head under a rock for the past year knows what unusual circumstances any sports team from the university has had to undergo over the past year. Despite the horrific scandal, trial and NCAA sanctions having nothing to do with the soccer program or anyone involved with it, the fallout from it all has to have created a tough atmosphere for any student-athlete to live in, let alone compete at the highest caliber.

Still head coach Erica Walsh and her team have set out to do just that.

“For the current athletes I don’t think there is any real effect,” Walsh said. “There has been a lot of effort to create this one team mentality among the teams in the athletic department. That has been a real rallying point and the girls on the team have really shown a lot of leadership and maturity to stay focused on fulfilling their goals and dreams here at Penn State.”

Walsh credited a number of players with being a good influence on the squad in keeping focused, including Christine Nairn, Bri Garcia, Lexi Marton and Maddy Evans. In the case of Evans, a senior who played club soccer with FC Bucks in the Philadelphia area, her role as president of the school’s student-athlete advisory board has thrust her into the spotlight in dealing with the media and helping galvanize the student body in the wake of the NCAA sanctions being issued.

“Maddy and Lexi Marton have been on the front lines, answering questions from the media that most players in women’s soccer programs don’t have to answer,” Walsh said. “They and the others have done an amazing job of making a difference in all of this.”

For Evans, that has meant reminding everybody on the team why they came in the first place.

“The main thing for us is we all came to Penn State for a reason. We have set goals and we have dreams and we are not going to let anything stop us from achieving those goals,” Evans said. “We are just focusing on that and moving forward with the good intentions we’ve had from the beginning.”

Evans said that whatever the distraction the off-the-field news may have been, the team is completely focused now.

“Obviously none of us could have ever seen any of this coming and we were completely, in shock, but I think the nature of our team, and the program at Penn State, has been to deal with the cards we’re dealt,” she said. “We’ve learned valuable lessons and we want to move forward. We’re a pretty cool, galvanized group right now. We’re all about moving forward and focusing on the things we can control.”

For Marton,  a senior defender from Canada, said that sense of chemistry has extended well beyond the soccer team.

“It has been neat because we feel like all the student athletes on campus really are one team now. It’s not just a catch phrase,” Marton said. “We can truly empathize with one another. The home games so far have been incredible. We had a record crowd against Stanford and the community has really been behind us.  They’ve made a great effort to come out and get behind the sports teams, including soccer. It’s been cool to see that support and we’ll be doing the same for the other teams.”

Nairn, a U20 Women’s National Team veteran and one of the best players in college soccer, credits Walsh with helping reset the team’s focus.

“Our coach is a big advocate of remembering that as a student athlete we are always under the microscope. She reminds us that whenever we put on the jersey we are representing something bigger than ourselves,” Nairn said. “She has said that since our freshman year, to wear the Nittany Lion with respect and honor. Everything we’re going through at the university isn’t ideal, but we do try to keep in mind that our four years here are short, and for all the good things you do, the one thing you do wrong can change what people think of you later, so you need to think through every angle of a decision before you make it.”

Walsh acknowledges that the parents of recruits, who are only hearing a national version of events in State College, are bound to have some serious questions.

A player’s parents are going to want some answers and I’ve asked some hard questions myself of my superiors,” she said. “I’ve been guaranteed that we would continue to be funded at the highest level. It is recognized that we are doing good things off the field as well as being a potential national championship program.”

The Nittany Lions are off to a good start and now welcome back last year’s leading goal-scorer in the country, Maya Hayes, and attacking midfielder Taylor Schram from the World Cup-winning U20 Women’s National Team.

Speaking to TopDrawerSoccer.com while getting ready for this weekend’s match with Wisconsin, Nairn said she is hoping that championship potential Walsh mentions is realized this season.

“Definitely we think we can do it,” she said. “This senior class has had some ups and downs and some heartbreaks, but we have the experience and we’re really playing as a team. We can win it and we’ll only improve with the return of Maya and Taylor.”

If it happens, it will be just a little more remarkable than usual.