Thunder advances to title match
It's a measure of how high the Wheaton College women's soccer team's expectations are that the Thunder can win a national semifinal by 3 goals and be disappointed.
Wheaton College advanced to its third national championship match in four years with a 3-0 victory over Western Connecticut State on Friday in Lake Buena Vista, Fla. The Thunder (26-0-0) will face Messiah College (23-0-0) at 2 p.m. today at Disney's Wide World of Sports Complex.
"I don't think we played very well today," Wheaton coach Pete Felske said. "I was a little disappointed with the energy and we didn't look real sharp.
"We survived to play another day," he added. "We've got a strong team and we just have very, very high expectations."
Messiah defeated The College of New Jersey 2-0 in Friday's other semifinal.
"They're a very technical team, very disciplined, very organized," Felske said of Messiah. "They know what they do well, they try to stay within those limitations."
Wheaton's 26 victories this year sets a new Division III single-season record for wins by a Division III women's soccer team. The previous record of 25 was set by Wheaton in 2004.
Friday's victory was the 44th consecutive win for the Thunder as the team advances to today's national championship match with the opportunity to become the third team in Division III history to win three titles.
Wheaton took a 1-0 lead 33:55 into the match as senior Libby Passiales (Wheaton Warrenville South) scored off of a deflected shot by fellow senior Sarah Richardson. Richardson's original shot fell out of goalkeeper Jenna Campbell's hands and Passiales came in put the ball into the back of the net.
"Libby just came running in and poked it in. Libby's a worker and scores what a lot of people say are ugly goals," Felske said. "She's just in the right place at the right time."
The score remained 1-0 for much of the second half until sophomore Taryne Lee (Wheaton Academy) scored on an open opportunity 82:33 into the match. The Thunder lead increased to 3-0 at the 85:17 mark of the match when Jami Herrmann scored off of an Erin Hodina (Wheaton Academy) assist.
Wheaton outshot West Conn 19-4, with a 3-1 edge in corner kicks. Jenna Cappellieri made 6 saves in the Colonials' net. Thunder netminder Kristin Eggert (Glenbard South) made 1 save.
"There is no better way to go out than to be playing for a national championship," Richardson said. "It would be nice to go out with a win, but we always say that every game is just another day in the office. We have done this 26 times this year and we can't make (today) much different than the previous 26 matches."