November 10, 2009

MESSIAH IN PERENNIAL FALL POSITION

It will be a busy upcoming weekend on the Messiah College campus, as the NCAA released the national tournament brackets for men’s and women’s soccer and field hockey Monday — with Messiah serving as an opening-round host for each.“To say the least, it’s an exciting time to be a part of Messiah College athletics,” said Cory Furman, assistant athletics director for public relations and marketing. “I’m fairly confident that we’re the only NCAA Division III school in the country hosting an opening weekend in these three sports. It’s both a privilege and an honor to be hosting such important events.” Messiah will be defending national championships in men's and women's soccer and have been in the NCAA field hockey championship game several times without winning the title. Maybe this is the year?

MEN'S SOCCER

The Messiah men’s soccer team (19-1-0), Commonwealth Champion after defeating Arcadia, has a first-round bye and will host a second-round contest Sunday afternoon at 1 p.m. at Shoemaker Field against the winner of the Ohio Northern and Brockport winner. First year Coach Brad McCarty has his team in a great position to continue the Falcon's national championship legacy. Misericordia (12-4-3), Freedom Conference Champion, travels to Salisbury to take on Centennial foe Johns Hopkins (15-3-2). Chuck Edkin's Cougars also earned the Freedom AQ last year, their first in the conference.



In ECAC action, #5 DeSales (10-7) travels to #4 Lebanon Valley (10-7-2) on Wednesday for a rematch of a regular season match where the Dutchmen prevailed 3-2.

FIELD HOCKEY

Messiah’s field hockey team (19-0) starts their pursuit of a national championship on Saturday at Anderson Field. Ranked #1 in the country for most of the season, the Falcons are making their 23rd straight tournament appearance. They will face the winner of the Eastern University (17-4)/Stevens Institute of Technology (17-3) game, slated to take place Wednesday afternoon in Hoboken, N.J. at 5 PM. Lebanon Valley College (17-3) plays Wittenberg University (12-5) at home on Wednesday, with the winner playing Rowan at 2 p.m. Saturday. The winners of those two games will then face off Sunday at 3:30 p.m. for the semi-final games at Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, Mass. the following weekend. Conference fans are hoping for a Messiah-Lebanon Valley tilt on Sunday, the third meeting between those teams this season.

In ECAC action, #1 seed Wilkes (15-3) hosts Hartwick and #4 Alvernia (11-8) plays Wesley.

WOMEN'S SOCCER

Messiah’s women’s soccer team (19-0-1) will take on Farmingdale State University (15-4-3) at 5 p.m. on Saturday. The Falcons make their 10th straight NCAA Tournament appearance and are coming off their third-straight Commonwealth Conference Championship. Endicott College (17-4) faces off against SUNY Geneseo (14-4-2) in the other first-round contest at 7:30 p.m. Saturday night. The winner of that game then faces the winner of the Messiah-Farmingdale State contest at 6 p.m. Sunday evening. Eastern (10-7-2), Freedom Conference Champions after winning the AQ from the 3rd seed, play ODAC foe Virginia Wesleyan (17-3-1) at Johns Hopkins on Saturday at 2:30.

VOLLEYBALL

Perennial power Juniata, hosts the MAC champions this Thursday. At 12:30 Eastern (30-4), Freedom Champ, faces off with Frostburg (30-4) and at 5:30 Lebanon Valley, Commonwealth Conference winner, takes on Mount Union (21-6). Winners will continue play on Friday. The Eagles and Dutchmen were 2008 conference champions and took the same trip to Juniata where they were eliminated.

In ECAC action, the Freedom has another top seed as #1DeSales (21-8) hosts PSU-Altoona, #3 Widener hosts Swarthmore and in the Metro, #4 FDU (18-15) hosts #5 Ramapo.

Congratulations to all our postseason representatives - we are confident that you will do well in your respective brackets!