Messiah's men's team lifted the Walnut and Bronze for the second consecutive year and the seventh time in school history.
Photo by Ryan Coleman, D3sports.com
The final 2009 D3soccer.com Top 25 men and women's poll is released and available
hereMessiah finished its back-to-back sweep of the Division III men's and women's soccer titles, as the men
defeated Calvin 2-0, winning their seventh Division III national championship. Video of
all four press conferences.
In the women's title match,
Messiah was a 1-0 winner over Washington U., starting the repeat Saturday. Amanda Naeher grabbed the game winner for the Falcons on a goal in the first half. The Falcons controlled most of the play, outshooting the Bears 16-6 and generally controlling midfield play. Clara Jaques had six saves for the Bears. The Bears did create a dangerous chance with under two minutes remaining. Two close shots were delivered from inside the box, but the first was rejected high and the second went just left. Wash U finishes itsseason as the national runner-up at 18-4-2.
In Friday's semifinal action, Messiah beat Williams 2-1 (
news conference) while the Messiah women shut out TCNJ 1-0.
In the late men's semifinal, Calvin edged past Dominican 1-0 on a Brad Heethuis goal late in the second half. Video from
press conference
Carter Schwarberg put the ball in the top right corner on the sixth round of penalty kicks as the Washington U. women
advanced in a shootout, 4-3 against Lynchburg. The Bears outlasted the Hornets after a 1-1 tie to advance to Saturday's national championship game, where they faced Messiah. Video from
press conference.
Joanna Haqq scored midway through the second half to give Messiah a 1-0 lead on TCNJ in the first of Friday's national semifinals and the Falcons made it stand up.
The 2008 champions kept their title defense alive with a 1-0 win and advanced to Saturday's national championship game. Haqq's 10th goal of the season ended a shutout streak of 816:59 for TCNJ that extended into the playoffs.
Box score.
"I think we played pretty even," said TCNJ's Briann McDonough, who has been on three Final Four teams. "I don't think we got enough shots off or put enough offensive pressure on them as we would have liked."
Watch the news conference.
Wash U got a goal from Julie Tembunkiart in the 43rd minute of the first half, but Lynchburg tied it on a Wash U own goal off a corner kick early in the second half.
Read Corey Furman's preview of the tournament from a post-game point of view. Click to read the
Messiah men's preview, and
here for the Messiah women's preview.