South Hadley, MA — Thankfully, senior Liz Ziegler's collegiate field hockey playing career will come to an end Sunday afternoon.
Her continual flare for the uber-dramatic has got to be exhausting.
Ziegler calmly pushed in a penalty stroke with just under 10 minutes remaining in Saturday's NCAA Division III National Semi-Final against third-ranked Ursinus College at Mount Holyoke College Field, giving Messiah a 4-3 lead that would hold until the final horn.
After trailing by a 2-0 score at halftime and a 3-2 count with just 20 minutes to play in regulation, it appeared that Messiah's dream season may have been headed to a disheartening close.
That was before Ziegler had the final say, however, as following an illegal foot-save in the circle from the Bears, the Myerstown, Pa. native was chosen to take her second stroke of the season.
She flipped a beauty of a shot past Ursinus keeper Erica Scott, setting off a wild — albeit momentary — celebration on the filed.
The real party began just nine minutes and 58 seconds worth of game clock later, as the Falcons withstood three penalty corners from Ursinus over the game's final eight and a half minutes to hang on for the 4-3 win.
“I couldn't be more proud of our team,” said Messiah head coach Jan Trapp afterward. “We worked together and we left everything out on the field. It was an exciting win, to say the least, but they're all exciting when you get to this point. I'm extremely excited.”
Messiah now advances to its seventh national championship game on Sunday afternoon, facing second-ranked Salisbury University, which handed #4 Tufts University a 1-0 loss in Saturday's other semi-final.
That all wouldn't have been possible had it not been for Ziegler's magical shot, however, as the senior added another page to her made-for-Hollywood scrapbook: After scoring the well-documented golden goal to lift Messiah into last season's Final Four in a 3-2 overtime win against Rowan University, Ziegler seemingly outdid herself Saturday, keeping the Falcons' season alive to advance to the biggest stage.
Trapp said some of that history came into her decision on selecting Ziegler for the stroke —the team's sixth leading goal scorer on the season entering Saturday's contest.
“We normally tell the girls who we'd go with (for a penalty stroke) before the game, but we didn't today,” Trapp said. “When it came time today, (assistant coach) Broooke (Good) looked at me and said, 'Liz?' I said, 'Yes, ma'am.' Liz is one of our best strokers, and she'd been stroking so well in practice. She marched right up there and stayed in the zone. What an unbelievable stroke.”
It appeared that no Messiah heroics would be necessary at the start of the contest, as the Falcons recorded the game's first 10 shots, seemingly setting the table for a dominant performance.
Messiah (22-0) failed to convert on any of those attempts, however, and Ursinus (20-3) quickly took advantage: The Bears' Jen Hooven scored the game's first marker on Ursinus' second shot of the game, putting Messiah behind 1-0 just 19:09 in.
Things would get worse for Trapp's club in the 31st minute, as a nifty passing sequence helped Ursinus' Alyssa Thren to a slap shot score, beating senior keeper Ashley Mowery to her right with just eight and a half minutes remaining in the opening period.
Neither team would record a shot during the remaining span, and Messiah was looking at only its second halftime deficit in as many games — and its largest.
“We so dominated the opening minutes, but just could not drive the ball worth anything,” Trapp said. “At halftime, we made some adjustments to how we were hitting the ball, and of course we had to talk about the dreaded 2-0 lead. I asked the girls, 'Do you have more goals in your tank than what they have on the board?' They answered a resounding yes. I wasn't devastated being behind 2-0 at that point, and I don't think the girls were, either. They knew they could do it.”
Much like in the team's Third Round comeback win over Lebanon Valley College, Trapp's club slowly went to work. Following a pair of Ursinus shots and penalty corners to open the second half, Messiah collected its seventh — and final — corner of the game at the 45:36 mark.
Senior Katie Love sent a beauty of a serve to the top of the circle, which was received by junior Julie Barton. Barton then left the ball for Ziegler, who slapped a firm feed to the far post.
Junior Kourtney Ehly finished things off from there, recording her team-leading 27th goal of the season.
Her statistics would only balloon from there.
In the 50th minute, Messiah again gained possession in the center of the field, the ball eventually arriving to the stick of senior Jenna Max. Max pushed a ball into the scrum in front of the Ursinus cage, and again Ehly was there, this time lifting a point-blank shot into the netting to tie the game 2-2 with 49:42 elapsed.
“Kourtney didn't play her best early in the game, but my oh my did she turn it on,” Trapp said.
As Messiah celebrated its new life in the national semi-final, Ursinus caught the Falcons at a vulnerable point: Just 37 seconds following Ehly's equalizer, the Bears took the restart and marched down the field — a push capped by a goal from the Bears' Alyssa Thren.
Afterward, Mowery called that score a “stupid goal, one I should've stopped.”
Just like that, the Falcons found themselves trailing. Again.
But just like that, Ehly went to work. Again.
Just 34 seconds following Thren's goal, Ehly got inside position following the restart whistle, slotting a shot past Scott to tie the game up at 3-3.
Messiah had scored three goals in less than five minutes — allowing one as well — nearly rivaling a three-goal-in-two-minute span the Falcons put on Ursinus when the teams met during the regular-season, a 4-3 Messiah win at Anderson Field back on Sept. 5.
In that contest, Messiah had led by a 4-2 score, and simply needed to finish the game without a major catastrophe.
Saturday, however, tied at 3-3, Messiah needed a little bit more magic.
Who else besides Ziegler to provide it?
As the Falcons regained the majority of possession — the team recorded the game's final three shots — an attempt from Max was kicked off the endline by an Ursinus defender.
The game officials properly called the foot foul, resulting in the Falcons' sixth penalty stroke attempt of the year.
Making only two of those during the regular-season, Trapp went with Ziegler, who had attempted just two in her entire career, making neither.
The senior seemed like a savvy vet, however, putting a brilliant effort on frame — one that provided little doubt it would find the back of the cage.
“After the game, Liz told me she knew she was going to make it before she even took it,” Trapp said. “That's the mentality you want a stroker to have, in any situation.”
Ziegler's goal proved to be the last true threatening moment for either team down the stretch, as Ursinus attempted three penalty corners in the final eight and a half minutes, failing to record a shot.
For the game, Messiah maintained a 17-14 advantage in total shots, though Ursinus put 12 penalty corners into play compared to the Falcons' seven.
Mowery finished with six saves on the afternoon, her seventh game of the year with six or more stops — and third straight.
“Ashley played a great game for us,” Trapp said. “Kourtney, Jenna, Julie … really, everyone did. Our confidence didn't waiver when we got down, and our game really improved in the second half. I kept praying for our girls to have wise minds. I just wanted us to make good choices. I thought, for the most part, we did that in the second half. We're so excited to be playing again tomorrow.”
Messiah will meet up with Salisbury (19-1) for the ninth time in NCAA Tournament play Sunday (the teams have split the previous eight results), and for the second time in a national championship: Salisbury handed Messiah a 1-0 defeat in the 2005 title match, the Sea Gulls' third straight national championship.
Trapp said that while that game is still fresh in her mind — “they scored on a beautiful corner to beat us” — she's not upset that none of her current players were around to experience it.
“They're a wonderful team,” Trapp said. “We'll need to play our best game if we want to win a national championship.”
Messiah defeated Salisbury by a 3-2 score in overtime on Sept. 19 of this season. That game was highlighted by Barton's game-winner just 4:40 into extra time, after the Sea Gulls notched the equalizer at the regulation buzzer.
Game time for the 2009 NCAA Division III Field Hockey National Championship is set for 1 p.m. Sunday at Mount Holyoke College Field Turf Field in South Hadley, Mass. Fans can follow all the action — including watching the game via streaming video — at the 'championship central' website, or by checking in on www.NCAA.com.
