MVille-Messiah Game Notes
PURCHASE, N.Y. – Having already surpassed most expectations by even making it past the Freedom Conference Tournament for the second time, the Manhattanville women's soccer team will face the toughest task in program history in the first round of the NCAA Tournament on Saturday as the Valiants match up with NSCAA #1 and two-time defending national champion Messiah College at 11:00 a.m. at the Rowan University Soccer Stadium.
Manhattanville and Messiah will kick off at 11:00 a.m. on the campus of Rowan University. Tickets for the game are $6.00 for adults; $3.00 for senior citizens, military personnel and students (with valid ID); and $2.00 for children under 12 years old. The gates will be opened one hour prior to the start of the match.
For fans that can't make it to Glassboro for the match, WMVL 88.1 FM will once again provide a free audio broadcast for Saturday's NCAA Tournament contest. Live coverage will begin with the Valiant pre-game show starting at 10:45 a.m. The link will be available on the front page of GoValiants.com on game day.
Saturday's game is perhaps the ultimate David vs. Goliath battle. The Valiants (4-13-3, 3-2-2 Freedom) – who have the fewest wins of any NCAA Tournament team in NCAA soccer history – will look to snap the NCAA-record 71-game unbeaten streak of the Falcons (19-0-0, 7-0-0 Commonwealth), who have won the last two national titles and have not lost a match since dropping the 2007 Division III National Championship game to Wheaton (Ill.) College on November 24, 2007.
For Manhattanville to have a chance against the defending champs, the team will need stellar efforts from every player on the roster.
Senior Holly Nonis (Brampton, Ontario) and sophomore Brittney Smith (Stratford, Conn.), who have combined to form a formidable tandem up front in recent weeks, will need to create chances against a team that has allowed just two goals on the year. Nonis, an All-Conference first-team selection this season, leads the team with 12 goals and 26 points on the year. Smith has come on as of late to net three goals and two assists for eight points, including scoring the game-winning goal in last weekend's Freedom Conference Tournament championship game win over FDU-Florham.
In the midfield, sophomore Morgan Rebollal (Holtsville, N.Y.) has also played well in recent weeks and ranks second on the team in points thanks to four goals and a team-leading seven assists. The All-Conference midfielder scored the first goal of the afternoon on Saturday to lead the team to victory over the Devils.
The Valiant back line will also be severely tested by a squad that has scored an amazing 99 goals on the year, meaning that juniors Kristina Ciotto (West Hartford, Conn.) and Lauren Schobel (Yorktown Heights, N.Y.) and sophomores Sonia Occhionero (Montreal, Quebec) and Kirstin Hallett (Rocky Hill, Conn.) will need to be on the top of their games for the Valiants to have a chance this weekend. An All-Conference defender on the wing, Occhionero shut down the top-two scorers in the Freedom Conference last week and now will be charged with trying to contain Messiah senior Amanda Naeher, who leads the nation in scoring with 30 goals and nine assists.
The game may also come down to how spectacularly senior keeper Ali Bromson (Suffield, Conn.) can play. The All-Conference first-team selection has posted a 1.77 goals against average and .776 save percentage this year while averaging just over six saves per game, and the Freedom Conference Tournament Most Valuable Player will likely be required to make some great plays once again to keep her team in the match.
Messiah comes into the game with a nearly unparalleled recent résumé, posting a 91-1-3 record in the last four years and winning three of the last five national titles. Besides Naeher, who leads the country in scoring, sophomore Corrinne Wulf ranks second on the team in points with 14 goals and a team-leading 14 assists, while freshman Alicia Frey also has 12 goals and eight assists on the year. In goal for the Falcons, junior Autumn Reilly ranks second in Division III with a 0.11 goals against average and a .943 save percentage, having played every minute for the team on the year.
The Valiants and Falcons have never met on the soccer field, while Saturday's match will also be Manhattanville's first-ever game against the top-ranked team in the country. The Valiants' one match against a nationally-ranked foe this season should provide some encouragement, as the team played one of its best matches of the year in barely falling to #10 Eastern Connecticut State University by a 1-0 score on October 27.
The winner of Saturday's game will face the winner of Rowan University and Stevenson University in the second round of the NCAA Tournament, scheduled for Sunday at 1 p.m. at Rowan.
Directions to Rowan
Campus Map
NCAA.com Tournament Release
Complete Tournament Bracket
