The National Women’s Soccer League’s regular season comes to a close Sunday. For the San Diego Wave, there’s plenty to play for.

The Wave (17-8-4) have a chance to win the NWSL Shield, awarded to the team that finishes atop the league standings at the end of the regular season.

To do so, the visiting Wave need to beat Bay FC and hope that first-place NJ/NY Gotham FC falls to the Utah Royals. All matches on the NWSL’s “Decision Day” start at the same time: 2 p.m.

“All we have to do is to win,” midfielder Gia Corley said. “Then we did everything that is in our control, and we can’t control anything else.”

Any Wave victory combined with a Gotham loss would give San Diego the Shield by way of a tiebreaker, either through goal differential or total wins.

The Wave also need to make sure the Washington Spirit don’t leapfrog them for second place. San Diego can clinch at least second with a win or draw against Bay FC. Washington can move into second if the Wave lose and the Spirit defeat Chicago.

Wave coach Jonas Eidevall said the team will monitor both matches while focusing on its own performance.

“We’ll be informed, and we’ll know whenever that sort of has any formal impact on our game,” Eidevall said.

The Wave are focused on securing a victory and building momentum before the playoffs begin next weekend.

They are coming off a disappointing 2-2 draw against Boston Legacy FC, a match they believed they should have won given their recent form. A victory would have left San Diego just one point behind Gotham entering “Decision Day.”

Sometimes, however, a setback can serve as a valuable wake-up call before the playoffs, especially for a team with championship aspirations.

“I want to see us be us,” Eidevall said. “Playing our way, being brave, being optimistic, proactive in the way that we play. That’s the most important thing for me.”

The two teams last met May 3, when Bay FC earned a 1-0 victory at Snapdragon Stadium.

“It’s a long time ago, though,” Corley said. “So we grew from this point. I would say, so we’re a whole different team now than we were then, and we just try to focus on ourselves and put on the field what we did the last weeks.”

Bay FC has struggled since that meeting, falling to third-to-last in the NWSL standings with 27 points. The club is also winless in its last four matches.

Forward Karlie Lema has been Bay FC’s biggest offensive threat, scoring eight goals this season. She recently recorded two assists in a 2-2 draw against the Portland Thorns.

“They create you multiple problems or challenges, so to speak,” Eidevall explained. “They create quite a fair bit of opportunities from their high pressing, so we need to be aware of that. They’re a quite direct team in the way they try to create goal-scoring opportunities, so we need to be very quickly organized in those situations. So there’s a couple of things we just need to be a little bit extra on the lookout for.”

Plenty can happen across the league Sunday, but the Wave remain focused on returning to their winning ways and entering the postseason with momentum.

It will be a quick turnaround for San Diego. The Wave will host their NWSL quarterfinal match Friday at 7 p.m. The opponent will be determined by what happens on the final day of the regular season.

“I really like the playoff and the excitement it brings and the importance of the games,” Eidevall said. “I think the crowd loves it as well.”