ANNVILLE, Pa. - The Messiah softball team defeated No. 1 seed Arcadia this afternoon to win their seventh conference championship and are heading to the NCAA Tournament for the third-straight season. A rather bittersweet for the Falcons as they defeated the Knights twice this weekend to help win the title after dropping two games to them in the regular season. Joy Kolakowski was named the tournament MVP after another solid performance pitching the complete game shutout and allowed just three hits. Samantha Esper and Haylee Anders each led the Falcon offense with two hits each.

Messiah scored early in the bottom of the first inning when Erin Cressman drew a walk and was advanced on a bunt by Esper. A throwing error by Arcadia allowed both runners to earn extra bases and just like that the Falcons had two runners in scoring position. Anders then stepped up and delivered a single through the left side to put Messiah ahead 2-0.

Angie Stephano got the offense going in the second inning with a one-out single and then Ashley Carroll laid down a nice sacrifice bunt to advance her to second. With two outs and two runners on, Samantha Esper hit a single to centerfield to extend Messiah's lead 3-0. Arcadia made a little noise in the top of the fifth with a lead off single and eventually moved the runner to third base but Kolakowski stayed composd and recorded the final out of the inning with a fly out to right field.

The Knights didn't have any other opportunities to score in the final two inning as Messiah's pitching and defense held them at bay and went on to win 3-0.

As aforementioned, this is third-straight trip to the big dance for Messiah and 12th appearance in program history. They will have to wait until tomorrow afternoon to find out their opponent and what regional site they will be traveling to. The selection show airs at 1:00 p.m. and a link can be found at GoMessiah.com.