Not quite enough. Falcons fall in title game.

Well, sadly, once again the Lady Falcons dream ended one win short of completion, as they fell to the HPU Yellowjackets by a score of 68-54. The Falcons finish their incredible season at 30-3, and as the national runners-up for the 2nd time in school history. I'm sure they are bitterly disappointed now, but as they step away, the Falcon seniors can reflect on an outstanding career and final season.

The story of the game from my perspective was the Howard Payne defense. Howard Payne's aggressive 2-3 zone had Messiah struggling all game, and they forced the Lady Falcons into a high number of turnovers. I admittedly didn't pay close enough attention to HPUs game yesterday to be sure that the 2-3 zone was HPUs standard defense, but I was very concerned when I saw them run it. For a team that has the kind of shooters that Messiah always does, this year being no exception, the Lady Falcons have traditionally struggled when attacking a zone. The Falcons also, as I feared, struggled on the defensive glass, given HPU way too many second chances in the way of offensive rebounds. All that being said, HPU was simply a better team, in my opinion. It was clear from the early going why they had rolled to their undefeated record.

Gotta say that, despite the result, getting to watch the game on TV was about the coolest thing ever. It was almost surreal.

I was also thinking today about what an incredible run Messiah athletics has been on over the last 8 years. At the beginning of 2000 (I was starting my 2nd semester of my sophomore year at the time), Messiah had no national champions, either from teams or individuals. The program had been to a combined 8 Final Fours (6 from the field hockey team, 2 from the soccer team), with only 2 runner up finishes to show for it (both field hockey).

Since 2000, Messiah has seen the following:
2 individual national champions (Mike Helm - wrestling 2000, Chris Boyles - decathalon 2002)
6 national champion teams (men's soccer - 2000, 2002, 2004-2006, women's soccer - 2005)
8 national runner up teams (field hockey - 2001,2002,2005,2006, women's soccer 2002, 2007, women's basketball - 2001, 2008)
19 Final Four teams (field hockey, 2001,2002,2004-2006, women's soccer 2002, 2004-2007, mens soccer 2000-2002,2004-2007, womens basketball 2001, 2008)

It's a pretty incredible time to be a fan of Messiah athletics, when you think about it all in that context. Let's hope it doesn't end anytime soon!