EWING, N.J. – Five different Falcons combined to score five goals, and No. 10 Messiah women's soccer tallied early and late in a runaway win over No. 13 MIT on Saturday afternoon. The win moved the Falcons to 17-2-3, and it also advanced them into the NCAA Sectional Final for the fourth-straight season.
 
MIT ended their season with 20-2-1 record.
 
Early Advantage
The Falcons and Engineers matched up for the first time since meeting in the 2012 Sectional Semifinal—a game the Falcons also won by a 5-0 score. Contrary to that contest five years ago, when Holly Burgard opened the scoring in the 20', Messiah got on the board this afternoon after just eight minutes of play.
 
The goal was setup by a corner serve from the right side by Skylar Ulry, with her out-swinger going right to the center of the goal box. Keeper Lily Mueller jumped to grab the ball, but she punched it away instead and it went to Abby Monko on the weakside. Monko chested the fall down and quickly fired into the goal for a 1-0 lead.
 
Messiah continued to control tempo and territory from those opening minutes, and they almost tallied again off a corner in the 17', but Ellie Lengacher's header went just wide of the right post.
 
The Falcons' pressure created their second goal later in the half when Ulry pushed forward on the right side of the field and sent a long cross toward the far post. The ball scooted through and out the backside to Emily D'Amico, and she put a quick shot across the ground and inside the right post.
 
Flurry of Finishes
Messiah's dominant first-half carried through halftime, and they grabbed control with three more goals in a span of less than three minutes. In the 53' Sunny Gelnovatch and Sarah Strachan combined to get it going, with a square pass from Gelnovatch in the midfield going to her teammate on the right side. Strachan was unmarked and had plenty of space to approach the corner of the 18 and put a shot over Mueller and into the net.
 
Just 1:14 later Ulry sent a corner serve from the left side to the center of the box, and Lydia Eichorn touched it down to the ground for Barb Foster's shot through traffic. Her goal made it 4-0, and in the 56' Sunny Gelnovatch played Brooke Firestone behind the defense and into the box for a shot past Mueller that capped the flurry.
 
The three scores came in 2:53, the eighth-fastest three-goal set in program history, and also the fastest three-goal set in Messiah's NCAA postseason history.
 
In the Box
Messiah held MIT to just four shots—their lowest output of the season—and outshot them 18-4 overall. The Falcons also earned 10 corners, their fourth time this season earning double-digit corner sets.  This also marked the fourth time this season at least five different Falcons scored in the same game.
 
Up Next
The Falcons will now play on Sunday at 1:00 against host TCNJ. The Lions are 21-0 this season and ranked No. 1 in both the United Soccer Coaches Top 25 and D3Soccer.com Top 25. TCNJ defeated Lynchburg on Saturday, 5-0.