CALVIN SPORTS REPORT FOR DEC. 4, 2009
Men's Soccer Team To Face Messiah in National Title Game After 1-0 Win Over
Dominican;
Men's Basketball Defeats Carthage in CCIW/MIAA Classic;
Women's Basketball Falls to Carthage In first Defeat of Season;
Swimming and Diving Roundup From Calvin Winter Invitational;
Hockey Team Falls to Hope in Early-Season Showdown
MEN'S SOCCER
SAN ANTONIO, TX - The Calvin men’s soccer team is headed to the NCAA III
Championship final on Saturday, December 5.
The Knights (18-4-3) will face defending national champion Messiah (PA) at 6
pm (EST) in the title game.
Calvin advanced with a 1-0 victory over Dominican University Friday night in a
national semifinal game. Messiah (23-1-0) advanced with a 2-1 win over Williams
(MA). The only goal of the game in Calvin’s victory over
Dominican came off the right foot of junior Brad Heethuis (Jenison/Unity
Christian HS) who banged in his seventh goal of the year including his fifth
game-winner.
The goal came with just over 12:15 left in regulation and took place after
senior Alex McKenzie (Lindenhurst, IL/Antioch HS) was able to collect a ball
out of the air and send it over to Heethuis who collected the ball with a chest
trap. Moving through a scrum of players, Heethuis got his right foot on the
bouncing ball and whacked it past Dominican goalkeeper Maxwell Gutbrod just
inside the far post.
"Alex played a nice ball to me and I just chested it down and took it off the
hop," said Heethuis. "I wanted to hit it across goal and I just happened to hit
it well."
The Heethuis goal culminated a second half that Calvin dominated after an even
first half that saw both teams squeeze off four shots at goal. Calvin created
an early scoring chance on a rush up the left wing by junior Dan Kmetz who
fired a shot to the near post that was savedby Gutbrod.
In the 28th minute, Dominican (19-2-3) nearly drew first blood on a shot in
the box by Lio Tovar that appeared headed for the back of the net just inside
the near post. Calvin junior goalkeeper Ryan Bratt (Silver Spring, MD) was up
to the task however, stretching out his 6-7 frame to deflect the ball just wide
of the post.
10 minutes later, Calvin freshman Joe Broekhuizen (Grand Rapids South
Christian HS) nearly found the back of the net, unleashing a blast from the
left wing that beat Gutbrod but just missed tucking inside the far post.
In the second half, Calvin dominated possession, outshooting Dominican 6-3.
"I think the first 15-20 minutes of the game both teams were a little nervous,
trying to figure each other out," said Calvin men's soccer coach Chris Hughes.
"We're a possession style team and it took us awhile to figure out how to do
that against Dominican. Dominican is a great team with great players. It takes
90 minutes to figure things out against a team like that. After awhile we found
a rhythmn and then we finally found the back of the net. It was exciting."
Calvin finished the game with a 10-7 shots at goal advantage with Bratt
picking up the one crucial save for the Knights while Gutbrod had three saves
for Dominican.
Calvin will now turn its attention to Saturday's title game against a Messiah
team that has won six of the last eight national titles and leads the nation in
scoring with an average of nearly four goals a game.
"They've got a tradition of great soccer," said Hughes of Messiah. "They've
got a great coaching staff and we have a lot of respect for them. I think both
teams will have to figure each other out for 90 minutes and we're excited for
the opportunity."
MEN'S BASKETBALL
The Calvin men's basketball team defeated 17th-ranked Carthage 72-69 Friday
night in a first round game of the CCIW/MIAA Challenge.
For more on the game, visit the Calvin Web site for a story written by Brad
Draayer at:
http://www.calvin.edu/sports/news/comments/mens-basketball-defeats-carthage-72-69-in-miaa-cciw-classic/
WOMEN'S BASKETBALL
The Calvin women's basketball team suffered its first defeat of the year on
Friday night, falling at previously unbeaten Carthage 58-47.
For more, visit the Calvin Web site at:
http://www.calvin.edu/sports/news/comments/womens-basketball-falls-to-carthage-58-47-in-meeting-of-unbeaten-teams/
MEN'S AND WOMEN'S SWIMMING AND DIVING
The second day of competition of the Calvin Winter Invitational is now
complete. For a recap of day two written by Derek Neice, visit the Calvin Web
site at:
http://www.calvin.edu/sports/news/comments/day-two-of-calvin-winter-swimming-diving-invitational-in-the-books/
ACHA HOCKEY
The Calvin ACHA hockey team dropped a 4-2 decision to rival Hope in front of a
standing room only crowd Friday night at the Jolly Roger Ice Arena.
For a story written by Andrew Knot, visit the Calvin Web site at:
http://www.calvin.edu/sports/news/comments/calvin-hockey-team-drops-4-2-decision-to-hope-at-jolly-roger-ice-arena/
Received on Sat Dec 5 02:23:54 2009
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