Marauders fall to Slippery Rock

Colleges

Sunday News

Nov 08, 2009 00:02 EST

By STAFF

Millersville top-ranked men's soccer team fought hard but fell to host No. 12 Slippery Rock 2-1 in the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference championship game Saturday.

The Rock (17-3-1) scored in the 31st minute to take a 1-0 lead on Jeremy Deighton's 17th goal of the season. Marauders keeper Matt Langione came out to challenge Kenneth Fultz, but misplayed the ball. Fultz sent the ball across the box to a wide open Deighton.

Millersville (17-2) suffered its biggest blow three minutes later. Langione struck the ball with his hand outside of the 18-yard box, an action the referee deemed intentional. Langione was assessed a red card and was ejected from the game. The red card carries a one-game suspension, which will keep Langione's out of the first round of the NCAA Division II Atlantic Regional.

Backup keeper Kurt Pleier, who played only 64 minutes this season, was pressed into action. Millersville played the rest of the way a man down.

Slippery Rock made it 2-0 in the 51st minute on Iain Langstone's goal on an assist from Deighton.

Leading-scorer Kyle Loughlin scored an unassisted goal for the Marauders up in the 61st minute, beating goalie Greg Blum for his 13th goal of the season.

Blum made two key saves down the stretch to keep the Marauders at bay.

Millersville, which also lost in last year's PSAC final, now awaits its seeding in the NCAA Division II Atlantic Regional, which will be announced Monday.

Cross-Country: With a runner-up finish at the NCAA Atlantic Regional Saturday, Millersville senior Priscilla Jennings (Solanco) earned her second straight berth to the NCAA Championships. She helped the women's team to a fifth-place finish. The men's team placed 12th.

Thanks to a time of 20:41 on the Lamb's Creek Course in Mansfield, Jennings is on her way to Evansville, Ind., on Nov. 21.

Jennings, who placed second at the PSAC Championships last week, was nipped by Shippensburg's Neely Spence. Spence ran a time of 20:15 to finish ahead of Jennings. Mary Dell finished third, four seconds behind Jennings.

As a team, the Marauders finished fifth in a field of 22 teams and scored 136 points, one point behind Slippery Rock and 16 behind Bloomsburg, who earned the final team spot at nationals.

On the men's side, freshman Tim Stauring was Millersville's top finisher, placing 47th in a time of 33:56 on the 10K course.

Tennis: Wilkes University's Melanie Nolt, a freshman from Manheim Central, won the Middle Atlantic Conference No. 1 singles tennis championship last Sunday in Wilkes-Barre.

Wilkes had four singles championship and three doubles winners in the MAC individual championships.

Nolt, the No. 1 seed, beat Lebanon Valley's Sarah Grodzinski 6-4, 6-2 in the finals. Nolt teamed with freshman Kartina Lynn to win the No. 1 doubles title.

Volleyball: Lebanon Valley College won its second consecutive Commonwealth Conference volleyball championship Saturday night, defeating Elizabethtown College 3-2 (25-23, 18-25, 23-25, 25-16, 15-13) in the title match.

The Dutchmen (31-2) earn an automatic bid to the NCAA Division III tournament with their second five-set victory of the season over the Blue Jays (20-10). It was the third consecutive meeting between the schools in the conference championship match, with Elizabethtown winning in 2007 and Lebanon Valley taking the crown in 2008.

Lindsay Palm recorded a season-high 16 kills for the Blue Jays, while Kayla Deats had 14 kills and 13 blocks and Holly Bubb added seven kills and 10 blocks. Crystal Agnew handed out 47 assists and added 15 digs and five blocks, while Andrea Weaver (Garden Spot) finished with a team-high 22 digs.

• Franklin & Marshall was ousted from the Centennial Conference Volleyball Tournament with a 3-1 loss to Gettysburg. The Diplomats end the 2009 campaign at 23-6, and Gettysburg advances to the finals to play host Haverford.

Nicole Morano led F&M with 16 kills, and Pam Horner had 45 assists and 12 digs for the Diplomats.

• The Millersville women's volleyball team closed out the 2009 season with a hard-earned 25-17, 25-18, 25-22 sweep of Kutztown Saturday afternoon in Pucillo Gymnasium.

Meredith Bires (Manheim Township) posted a season and match-high 18 kills with a .351 attack percentage and added 11 digs in her last game for MU. She tallied over 1,000 kills throughout her four-year career at Millersville, and currently ranks second all-time for attack attempts

Under second year head coach Betsy Hayden, the Marauders finished the season with a final record of 16-12 (8-11) and ranked fifth in the conference.

Wrestling: Franklin & Marshall's Jake Bucha and Colin Ely were both placewinners as the Diplomats kicked off wrestling season at the Clarion Open. Bucha, a senior 133-pounder placed third, while Ely, a 197-pound sophomore grappled his way to sixth place.

Bucha went 6-1 on the season's first day with five decisions, including one major, and a pin. Ely went 2-3 on his way to sixth place.

Working primarily in the consolation bracket, Matt Fullowan went 3-2 in the 174-pound draw, and Matt Murray went 2-2 in the 133-pound bracket, while Dan Canfield posted the same mark at heavyweight.

Women's soccer: Senior captain Marina Pappas (Hempfield) had an assist on a corner kick to set up to classmate and fellow captain Amy Jackson's goal in Florida International's 1-0 win over Florida Atlantic in the final regular-season game. FIU (11-5-3, 9-1-1) earned the Sun Belt regular-season championship.