Behrend Soccer Faces Messiah in 2006 NCAA Women's Tournament
The Behrend Lions put it all together on Saturday, November 4, when they defeated Frostburg State 2-1 to win their fifth league championship title and advance to the NCAA Tournament for the second time.
The blue and white will have to put it all together again when they face the 2005 defending national champions of Messiah (15-2) on Friday, November 10, in Ithaca, N.Y., in the first-round of the 2006 NCAA Tournament. Last year Messiah beat TCNJ 1-0 to claim the 2005 National Title.
"We are delighted to be competing in the national tournament," said coach O'Driscoll. "The players have worked very hard this year and deserve this opportunity."
Behrend, who is 7-3-1 on the road and 2-0 at neutral sites this season, will play Messiah at 1:30 p.m. while Brockport State (16-2-1) will square off against the Bombers in the other regional semifinal at 11:00 a.m. The regional final is scheduled for Saturday, November 11 at 1:00 p.m.
This fall marked the ninth year out of ten that Behrend (14-5-1) has been in the AMCC championship game. Offensively, Behrend is led by freshman sensation Whitney Putnam (Erie/Villa Maria) with 27 points on 11 goals and five assists, and sophomore Nikki Frisbee (Valencia/Mars) with 24 points on eight goals and eight assists. In goal, freshman Kayla Frost has been outstanding. In 20 games, she has limited the opposition to 17 goals and posts a goals-against average of 0.94 with 107 saves.
Behrend will be making their second appearance in the NCAA Tournament. In 2000, they beat Frostburg State 5-4 to win the AMCC title. Behrend traveled to Nazareth and lost 7-1 to finish the season with a school-record 16-5 mark.
Of the 60 teams selected for the 2006 championship, Behrend was one of thirty-eight conference teams that were awarded automatic qualification by winning their league title. Four teams will receive first-round byes. Four two-team first-round matches will be played to determine the teams that advance to the second round to play the four teams that received a first-round bye. Twelve four-team sites will conduct first and second-round play on the first weekend of the championship, November 10-11 or 11-12. Second-round winners will advance to one of four sectional sites November 17-18 or 18-19. Winners of the four sectionals will advance to the semifinals November 24-25. All games, except the semifinals and final, will be played on the campuses of competing institutions. Disney's Wide World of Sports Complex in Lake Buena Vista, Florida will be the site of this year's finals.
Ithaca will provide Live Stats for
all three games through the following link:
http://bombers.ithaca.edu/live/wsoccer/xlive.htm
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