No. 1 Messiah 2, Lebanon Valley 0

LVC Starters
Reinhold (GK), Ross, Garbrick, Muffly, Cummings, Santoleri, Bost, Kleeschulte, Goldsmith, Robeson, Shutt

Messiah Starters
Larson (GK), Burgard, Elsaesser, Weaver, Merson, Soto, Bridel, Deckert, Biener, DeMonte, Ulry

How It Happened
Lebanon Valley played the No. 1 team in the country tough, however Messiah came away with the 2-0 victory in the MAC Commonwealth Semifinal match. The Falcons advanced to the championship game on Saturday when they will host the No. 3 seed, Arcadia at 6 p.m.

The recently-named MAC Commonwealth Offensive Player of the Year, Nikki Elsaesser got Messiah on the board in the 20th minute of the first half when she played the ball in from the middle and connected for her 23rd goal of the season. The Dutchmen kept the Falcons off the scoreboard for the rest of the half and went into intermission down by just a goal.

Not much action occurred in the second half until Kate Shults netted her third of the year in the 79th minute to give the Falcons a 2-0 lead that they never relinquished, as the top team in the country held LVC to just one shot on goal, which was registered by Meghan Ross. Taylor Reinhold stopped seven shots for the Dutchmen.

Tonight's game was a definite improvement from the Dutchmen's last meeting against the Falcons in which Messiah won 5-0.

ECAC Bid Lurking
LVC (13-6) could receive a bid in the ECAC Tournament, which starts next week. Check back to GoDutchmen.com for an update early next week.