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 2falcons |
National Champions! |
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Posts: 36 11/26/05 04:09 PM |
"My God sent his angel, and he shut the mouths of the lions." Daniel 6:22
Ok, maybe a bit out of context, but CONGRATULATIONS!! MESSIAH COLLEGE NCAA DIII WOMEN'S SOCCER NATIONAL CHAMPIONS |
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FalconAlum02 |
Re: National Champions! | #1 | ||
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Posts: 784 11/27/05 10:33 AM |
I wouldn't say the Lions mouths were shut.
This was one of the most even matches that I've seen played in a long time. The guy I rode down with commented that if those two teams played 10 times, they would win exactly the same number of games. I agree, and most of the results would be 1-0, and you would probably have several 0-0 games going to PKs. (Thank goodness that didn't happen yesterday) Last year and this year both, two very even teams and it just came down to who was going to make the one play to decided. Fortunately it has been Messiah both times, with Hannah nailing a whale of a shot from just outside of the box last year, and Rachel Hourning putting a perfect throw on BJ's head this year. Both teams controlled possession at times throughout the game, shots were almost even (10-8 edge for Messiah) and neither team generated any real close-in, dangerous chances from the run of play. TCNJ's most dangerous opportunity came from a great throw-in from #22, who was about the best stand-up thrower I've seen on the women's ide. Cassie Gross was fortunate to get to the flick-on. And Messiah obviously scored their goal from the header off of Rachel Hourning's flip throw, which was easily her best effort on that throw in the 4 late season games I saw. Talk about coming up big when it counts. Kacie Klynstra got all the accolades from the Messiah defense, and they were well deserved, but Sara Stevens played an incredible weekend at outside back, basically being used to mark the opponent's most dangerous threat on the wing, and she pretty much neutralized whichever side of the field she was on in both games. When you looked at the rosters after the games ended last year, you knew this was possible, but the odds against everything breaking right are so high, it's just incredible to see that it actually happened, and I was so glad I got to be there to witness it. Go Falcons!!!!!!! |
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FalconAlum02 |
Re: National Champions! | #2 | ||
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Posts: 784 11/27/05 11:21 AM |
Here's a final tally on the Class of '06 at Messiah.
Career record: 81-4-6 NCAA appearances: 4 NCAA record: 10-3-2 Final Four appearances: 3 Championship game appearances: 2 National championships: 1 Team stats (2002-2005) Goals scored: 283 Goals allowed: 30 Just to put a little perspective on some of the numbers. Prior to the Class of '06 suiting up for Messiah, the program had never seen a 20 win season. The program has averaged 20 wins in their 4 years. The 3 Final Four appearances, the title game appearances, and the championship are all program firsts. Now, it's worth noting that one of the Final Four runs was when these girls were freshmen, and in some cases a team's performance on the field is not really indicative of the freshman class. But, while that team was no doubt stacked with strong upperclassmen (including the programs first All-American first team in Mindy Miller), the freshmen were key contributors on it. My recollection (and someone can feel free to correct me if they remember differently) is that by the time Messiah faced Wheaton in the national quarterfinal in '02, at least 3 freshmen were either starting or receiving heavy minutes. (Megan Strausbaugh, Hannah Levesque, and BJ Atkins) If the Messiah women's program is able to maintain the lofty heights we've seen over the last 4 years, the class of '06 will have to go in the books much like the class of '03 on the men's side, as the one that took the program to the next level. Not that they didn't have plenty of help. |
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TheShoe |
Re: National Champions! | #3 | ||
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Posts: 376 11/27/05 01:26 PM |
Only 4 losses in 4 years.......that is incredible!!!!
Congrats to the Lady Falcons on their championship and the class of '06 on four tremendous years. |
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FalconAlum02 |
Update.... | #4 | ||
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Posts: 784 11/27/05 02:46 PM |
I was just looking at things and realized that that 2002 championship game run was judged by a slightly different standard.
Messiah had 3 shootout wins (conference semis, national quarters and semis) that would have gone down in the books as ties in any of the other 3 years the Class of '06 was in school (and I believe just about any year prior) NCAA had that one year experiment of counting shootout wins as wins, rather than ties. Now only in the title game can a shootout determine a winner. So, if they had done the same thing as they did in 2002 in any other season, they would have been 20-1-3, rather than 23-1 as the record book records. Which means, applying a consistent standard, the class of '06 was 78-4-9. Still impressive. In an interesting quirk of that experiment, Messiah played Trinity in the semis that year, and in the quarters this year. Despite the exact same result in both games, a 0-0 game after regulation and 2 OTs, and Messiah winning a shootout, the recordbook would indicate Messiah as 1-0-1 all-time against Trinity. |
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Hiker Jim |
Re: Update.... | #5 | ||
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Posts: 177 11/27/05 04:28 PM |
Congrats to the Falcons on a great season and a great 4 year run!
Championship finals are supposed to be close and so this one went as it should. Last year, my Wheaties had to go to PKs to defeat Puget Sound. We knew then as Messiah does now that the final really did include the best 2 teams in the country. I also like the fact that we have 2 straight (and 2 different) NCAA Champs from a Consortium member school. |
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FalconAlum02 |
Re: Update.... | #6 | ||
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Posts: 784 11/27/05 05:04 PM |
Yeah HJ, you'd have a hard time arguing that these weren't the best two teams in the country this year. The one and done nature of the NCAA tournament does mean that you don't always get your best teams to the final, but it happened this year.
Both teams were undefeated and untied entering the tournament, and as the brackets were setup were pretty obviously the #1 and #2 overall seeds. Both fought their way through the tournament, Messiah surviving a scare with a PK advancement over a tough Trinity team. And they played each other tight as they always do. It's worth noting that this is the 4th time these teams have met in the tournament in the last 6 years, Messiah now winning the last 3 after losing the first, and this was the first time the meeting didn't occur in the sweet 16. I have to give the committees on both sides this year some love. For whatever reason, perhaps the expanded field gave them more good geographic options, they made a better than usual effort to split up the teams they perceived to be the best. Can you imagine if this had been another Sweet 16 matchup? (The 2002 Sweet 16 matched them as two undefeateds) What a shame that would have been. When I saw the brackets, I just felt like that was going to be the title matchup, despite anything else that might happen. The teams seem destined to meet whenever possible. |
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JerseyJim |
FA02 | #7 | ||
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Posts: 59 11/28/05 12:18 AM |
I agree with everything you said and would like to add one thing.
The great thing was these two teams were able to play for the title at a neutral site and that took any home field advantage away. The Sweet 16 or Elite 8 game would have been played at Messiah. Kudos to Messiah for their great win. I thought TCNJ had the horses to beat Messiah, but Messiah plays so disciplined that their opponent cannot afford to make a mistake and/or must make a great play to win the game. In this game, Messiah made the great play and limited TCNJ's chances throughout. |
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FalconAlum02 |
Re: FA02 | #8 | ||
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Posts: 784 11/28/05 01:13 AM |
Quote: Actually the Messiah men hosted that weekend, and under the NCAA guidelines were to be given preference over the women to host in the odd year, so the sectional games would have been at a neutral site, or in Jersey. With the brackets the way they were, Messiah just had a quick 20 minute or so jaunt down to Dickinson. |
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TheShoe |
Pics from Championship game | #9 | ||
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Posts: 376 11/29/05 11:28 AM |
Check out the pictures taken at the National Championship game. I especially liked the 6 chronological photots of the play that resulted in the goal.
www.gborocollege.edu/athl...llery.html |
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