With the men's and women's soccer finals taking place yesterday, five of the six Div. III NCAA Tournaments have handed out their hardware. Only football, in which NESCAC bylaws prohibit league teams from competing, is still in action.
New champions were crowned in every sport but men's soccer, where Messiah repeated as national champs with a 3-0 win over Wheaton (Ill.). Both schools had teams in the Final Four in both the men's and women's tournaments, and both came home with a single trophy.
The title is Messiah's third straight and its fifth in seven years. After taking both the men's and women's titles in 2005, the small Christian college tucked away in rural Pennsylvania almost repeated the sweep, but the Lady Falcons fell in double overtime to The College of New Jersey in semifinal action on Friday. TCNJ then lost to Wheaton 2-0 in the finals as the Thunder returned to the national spotlight after a 2004 title and an early exit in the NCAA Sectionals last year.
Soccer was the last of the tournament-style sports to wrap up, with two of the biggest fields (57 for men and 60 for women) and no first-round byes. But they close a fall NCAA season that crowned one first-ever champion in field hockey, saw a return to the top spot for several schools, and was another chapter in NESCAC's strong postseason track record.
Field hockey crowned a first-time champion as Ursinus, a relatively new power in the sport, won a 3-2 decision over runner-up Messiah. The loss was the latest installment in the Falcons' almost painfully bad track record in the Final Four. They are 35-20 in lifetime NCAA play and have advanced to the national semifinals 11 times. Five of those trips have ended there, and six have ended with a loss in the national title game, including 2005 and 2006.
Messiah and Ursinus weren't the only small, rural Pennsylvania schools coming up big. Juniata College, enrollment 1,449, won its second volleyball title with a 3-2 win over Washington University in St. Louis, which was hunting for a repeat of its 2003 win. The two games dropped to WashU were the first two of the tournament for the Eagles, who are the only team to have appeared in all 26 NCAA Div. III tournaments.
The changes to the cross country selection process were designed to allow smaller schools in less dominant regions a chance at the national title. But when the dust had cleared at Wilmington College in West Chester, Ohio on Nov. 18, a pair of running powerhouses had come away with their fourth national titles in seven years. Calvin College placed three runners in the top 10 to win the men's team race, and Middlebury narrowly edged regional and conference rival Amherst for the women's crown.
In all, 18 NESCAC teams competed in the NCAA Championships. The only national title went to the Middlebury women's cross country team, and Bowdoin field hockey garnered the league's only semifinal appearance. Amherst women's soccer cruised to the national quarterfinals before falling in penalty kicks to TCNJ. Men's soccer earned three at-large bids along with the automatic bid that went to conference champion Williams. The Ephs were the only team to emerge from the second round, winning two straight before falling in penalty kicks to eventual champion Messiah.
Women's cross country saw the league's best performance, as NESCAC put three teams in the top five. Along with Middlebury's title, Amherst was just a single point behind in second, Tufts took a program-best fifth, and Williams came in at No. 8. Volleyball was the weakest league showing, with the NESCAC's only representative - tournament champion Amherst - bowing out in the second round of play.
- by Liz Hoffman
