The Gophers soccer team is carrying hopes for a lengthy run when it opens play in the NCAA women's tournament Saturday night.

The Big Ten regular season and playoff champion Gophers play host to North Carolina State, which claimed an at-large bid to the 64-team tournament, at 7 p.m. at Robbie Stadium. The Gophers (16-3-3) are the No. 4 seed in the Palo Alto Regional and are making their 10th NCAA appearance.

Penn State won last year's NCAA title, beating Rutgers in the College Cup semifinals. The Gophers got the conference's automatic bid this season, and seven other Big Ten teams — Michigan, Nebraska, Northwestern, Ohio State, Penn State, Rutgers and Wisconsin — earned at-large spots.

Three of those teams advanced to the second round on Friday: Penn State routed Bucknell 6-0, Wisconsin edged Marquette 1-0 and Nebraska tied South Dakota State 0-0 but won a shootout.

North Carolina State (10-8-1) is playing in the NCAA tournament for the first time in 20 years. The Gophers lost in the second round to Loyola Marymount in the 2015 NCAA tournament.

Simone Kolander (11 goals, six assists) is the Gophers' leading scorer and was the Big Ten forward of the year for the second consecutive season. Teammate Rashida Beal was the league's defender of the year, and fifth-year coach Stefanie Golan was the league's coach of the year. Josee Stiever (eight goals, 10 assists) joined Kolander on the All-Big Ten first team. Goalie Tarah Hobbs has a 0.55 goals-against percentage and has faced 56 shots in 22 games.

"Our senior class wants to make a statement," said Stiever, who has five of her assists in the past six matches. "We've all bought into focusing on each moment.

"We've had an incredible season so far. We've learned about each other, and we're ready to come out strong this weekend."

The Gophers, ranked No. 8 in the most recent coaches' national poll, are on a nine-match unbeaten streak (7-0-2) since losing to Wisconsin 1-0 in overtime on Oct. 1; the Wolfpack is 1-5-1 in its past seven matches. Freshman midfielder Tziarra King leads North Carolina State in scoring with eight goals and one assist.

Minnesota is 8-8 all-time in NCAA tournament games.

The NCAA field will be narrowed to 32 teams after this weekend. The winner of the Gophers-Wolfpack game plays either Pepperdine or California next Friday. The second- and third-round (next Friday and Nov. 20) games are also at campus sites, as are quarterfinal games either Nov. 25 or 26. The semifinals (Dec. 2) and championship (Dec. 4) are in San Jose, Calif.

The top seed in the Palo Alto Regional — and overall in the NCAA field — is Stanford (18-1-1).