Championship Preview
Women’s soccer surprise host for playoffs

Here are some of the credentials of one of the four semifinalists in this weekend Centennial Conference women’s soccer playoffs:

• It ranked fifth in the CC in goals allowed (9) in CC regular-season play.
• Its scoring margin (plus-15) in all games ranks fifth in the CC.
• After winning its CC opener 5-0, it did not win another league game by more than two goals.
• It has the fifth-best overall winning percentage (.706).
• It did not receive a regional ranking or points in a national poll until the last week of the regular season. The other four playoff qualifiers appeared in the regional poll in mid-September.
• In its last two games, it survived close calls at home against non-playoff teams, scoring early and then hanging on for dear life to win by a single goal.

That might look like the resume of the

Meghan O’Grady battles Dickinson’s Marissa Kunkle for possession during the Oct. 3 game. O’Grady leads the Mules and is tied for fourth in the CC with eight goals.

lowest-seeded team in the playoffs, but actually belongs to the top seed, Muhlenberg. The Mules may have not always looked pretty doing it, but they tied Johns Hopkins for the best record in the CC (9-1) and earned the right to host the semifinals and final by virtue of their head-to-head win.

Muhlenberg (12-5 overall) plays the first semifinal against Dickinson (14-3-1) on Saturday at 1:00, followed by a match between second-seeded Hopkins (14-3) and third-seeded Haverford (12-2-3). Saturday’s winners meet Sunday at 2:00 for the CC championship and an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.

“No one really expected us to be hosting,” acknowledged senior Kimberly Hacker. “We might look like one

Another Surprise: Mules Third in Region After not being ranked in the first two NCAA regional polls of the season, Muhlenberg jumped in at No. 3 in the rankings released yesterday. This poll, by the NCAA Committee, is the basis for determining berths and seeding for the NCAA Tournament. The National Soccer Coaches Association of America poll, which has Muhlenberg tied for 10th in the region, and the D3soccer.com national poll, in which the Mules received one vote, are strictly for fun. The NCAA poll is very Centennial Conference-heavy, which suggests a good chance for the CC to get at least one of the 21 at-large berths to the NCAA Tournament. Bids will be announced Sunday night, with the brackets to follow Monday morning. The rankings, with in region and overall records: 1. Messiah (15-0/17-0-1) 2. Johns Hopkins (11-2/14-3) 3. Muhlenberg (12-5/12-5) 4. Haverford (11-2-3/12-2-3) 5. Swarthmore (13-4/13-4) 6. Scranton (13-3-2/13-3-2) 7. Arcadia (14-1-3/14-1-3)

of the weaker teams in the tournament.”

The last two games of the regular season did not make a convincing argument otherwise. Against both Ursinus and Gettysburg, the Mules spent the majority of the time on the defensive after taking the lead. In both games, the visiting team had a goal called back by an offside call.

“We went into those games knowing that we needed to win, and when we scored we were just trying as best as we could not to lose,” said Hacker. “We’ve been practicing attacking the whole game. We don’t want to play the defensive game.”

The defensive game is harder to play against an explosive offensive team, and for evidence of that Muhlenberg has to look no farther than its only CC loss of the season. Against Dickinson on Oct. 3, the Mules scored 48 seconds into the game, then conceded four unanswered goals.

Now Muhlenberg will get a second crack at Dickinson, which averages a CC-leading 3.22 goals per game. The fifth-seeded Red Devils advanced to the semifinals with a shootout win at Swarthmore on Wednesday after the teams played to a 1-1 tie.

“We’re excited to be playing Dickinson,” said Hacker. “We want to prove to the conference that we can beat everyone.”

The Mules have beaten everyone since an overtime loss to Moravian left their record at 5-5. Their seven-game winning streak is the longest since the 2006 squad reeled off nine straight wins before losing at Johns Hopkins in the CC semifinals.

“Once we realized that we were 5-5 we were scared to have a losing record,” explained Hacker. “It was always a goal to host the tournament and we knew that if we lost another that goal would be gone.”

That goal has been achieved, and to achieve the goal of winning the conference championship Muhlenberg will have to outlast three other strong teams who come in on hot streaks of their own. Hopkins has lost only once (to Muhlenberg) in its last 13 games, Haverford is 6-0-1 and has allowed just one goal since suffering back-to-back losses to Muhlenberg and Hopkins, and Dickinson is 7-1-1 (losing only to Haverford) in its last nine.

Hopkins is the four-time defending champion and has won a league-high seven titles. Muhlenberg has worn the crown three times, but not since 2003, when it last hosted. Haverford is looking for its first championship since 1995 and Dickinson for its first ever.