GRANTHAM, Pa. - No. 1 Messiah field hockey scored early and often and rode stellar defense on their way to a 5-0 domination of No. 11 Trinity College in Sunday afternoon's NCAA Third Round match.
 
Messiah advances to the Final Four for the second-straight year and the 16th time overall. It is also the first time since 2009-2010 that the Falcons have made it in back-to-back seasons. The victory improves Messiah's season record to 21-0 and pushes their winning streak to an incredible 42 games.
 
Gehman Continues to Shine
After struggling to get things going on offense at times during yesterday's Second Round contest against Washington & Lee, the Falcons wasted no time on Sunday as they scored on just their second shot of the game. Seven minutes in, Kezia Loht started the chance with a great steal in front of the Bantam bench and took the ball all the way down to the baseline before firing a pass in to Carissa Gehman in the circle. Gehman collected and swept a shot along the turf that deflected off a defender but still found the back of the cage for the goal.
 
In the 17th minute, Gehman was in on the action again, receiving the ball off a restart from Kaylor Rosenberry and spinning to her right to gain space. As she was doing so, Kristin Donohue caught her defender sleeping and sprinted down the middle of the circle to receive a resulting pass from Gehman and knock it through the Trinity goalie's legs to push the Messiah advantage to 2-0. Less than two minutes later, it was Gehman and Donohue hooking up again, but with roles reversed this time as Donohue slotted a pass to Gehman for the shot just inside the right post and in.
 
Gehman now has 31 goals and 73 points on the year, both marks that are second-most for any player in Messiah history in a single-season, only trailing Danae Chambers' 37-goal and 103-point output in 2004. The forward's 104 career goals and 232 career points are also second all-time in program history behind Chambers, and those marks are currently tied for eighth and 13th, respectively, in NCAA Division III history.
 
Falcons Keep It Rolling
Messiah kept their foot on the gas in the second-half, scoring twice more in a span of just 69 seconds. Kezia Loht knocked in the first off an assist from Donohue for her career-high eighth tally of the season. From a penalty corner moments later, Donohue blasted a low ball towards the cage that Nicole Wilkerson managed to redirect perfectly past the Trinity goalie to give Messiah a 5-0 advantage that would hold for the remainder of the contest.
 
With three assists on the day, Donohue now has recorded 38 in her career, which is good enough for fourth all-time at Messiah.
 
Defensive Domination
Once again, the Falcons' defense was nearly untouchable, only allowing one shot that was not on goal and giving up one penalty corner over the entire 70 minutes. Countless times, the defensive line of Morgan Vasiliu, Shayna Landis, and Mackenzie Brubaker picked the pockets of Bantam attackers, rendering them helpless to form any sort of offensive rhythm. Trinity's Kelcie Finn, the reigning National Player of the Year and back-to-back NESCAC Player of the Year, was held to just the one shot.
 
Heading into the Final Four, Messiah has held opponents to just .62 goals per game (first in the nation), 2.6 shots per game, and 2.7 penalty corners per game. By contrast, the Falcon offense scores 4.33 goals per game and records 26.9 shots and 12.1 corners per contest.
 
Next Up
Messiah will take on No. 3 The College of New Jersey on Friday at 4:00 p.m. in Louisville, Ky. in the National Semifinal after TCNJ knocked off Centre College 2-0 earlier this afternoon. In the regular season, the Falcons and Lions faced off in Ewing, N.J. on Sept. 16 in what proved to be a great matchup. Taylor Holt and Kezia Loht put the Falcons on top early with a pair of first-half goals, and a Lion score from Kayla Peterson was not enough to bring TCNJ back as Messiah won 2-1.
 
Messiah and TCNJ will be joined in the Final Four by perennial powerhouse and No. 2-ranked Middlebury College as well as No. 10 Franklin & Marshall College, whom the Falcons also defeated earlier this season.