GRANTHAM, Pa. – The No. 1 Messiah field hockey team defended their home turf on Saturday morning with a 4-0 victory over the Endicott Gulls in the Second Round of the NCAA Tournament to advance into Sunday's Third Round. Messiah earned 20 penalty corners in the match and scored two goals in each half to claim the victory.
 
With the win, Messiah is one of just eight remaining teams in the Tournament heading into Sunday. The Falcons will play the Johns Hopkins Blue Jays at 1:00 p.m. on Anderson Field with a trip to the Final Four hanging in the balance. Messiah has advanced to the Final Four 14 times in program history, including back-to-back trips in each of the last two seasons.
 
The Falcons featured four different goal scorers in the victory with Kris Levesque, Josie Weaver, Jennie Young, and Kezia Loht each tallying in the victory.

Two in the First
In the 23rd minute of a scoreless game, Kezia Loht found Kris Levesque with a centering pass from the left end line. Levesque got a stick on the pass redirecting it into the back of the cage for the first tally of the match.

Just over four minutes later, Loht collected her second assist of the opening half when she came down the middle of the field with a head of steam. The senior slotted a pass to Josie Weaver on the left-side. Weaver just barely got a touch on the pass and, as the goalie came off her line, found some space to trickle a ball through the goal mouth for a 2-0 Messiah lead.

Two in the Second
The Falcons took the 2-0 lead into the second-half when Jennie Young and Kezia Loht went back-to-back in a two-minute stretch. In the 52nd minute, Megan Wetzel sent a ball into the mixer in front of the cage. He shot bounced out to Young in the middle of the circle and the freshman took a moment to collect herself before turning the lead into a 3-0 margin.

Almost exactly two minutes later, Kezia Loht cleaned up a loose ball on the right post and Messiah took a 4-0 lead that eventually turned into their margin of victory.

Third Round Match-Up
With the 4-0 victory, Messiah advances to the Elite Eight against the No. 9 Johns Hopkins Blue Jays on Sunday at 1:00 p.m. The Falcon are looking to punch their ticket to the NCAA Tournament while Johns Hopkins is making their first-ever appearance in the Third Round.

The Blue Jays and Falcons have met three times previous, but none of the current players were alive the last time these two programs met in 1990, during the NCAA Tournament. Messiah owns a 3-0 record against Johns Hopkins and as never allowed a goal against the Blue Jays.