Wheaton women back in NCAA semifinals
When Ali Kopelman was a freshman forward on the Wheaton women’s soccer team, it was easy for her to imagine every season ending with an appearance in the NCAA Division III semifinals.
Who could blame her? In 2008 the Thunder were making their third consecutive trip to the Final Four. They had won back-to-back national titles in 2006 and 2007. They had advanced to the championship match again in 2008, finishing second.
It took three years, but Kopelman — now a senior with a newfound appreciation for the season’s final weekend — and Wheaton are back.
The Thunder returns to the Final Four Friday with a semifinal match against Ithaca in San Antonio, Texas. At stake is a spot in Saturday’s national title game, and a shot at Wheaton’s fourth championship in eight seasons.
“We’re really excited right now,” Kopelman said Tuesday. “It wasn’t as exciting to be there freshman year, because we were told to kind of expect it. Not making it sophomore and junior year, you really appreciate the experience more.”
Wheaton (22-1-2) almost missed out on the trip to Texas, falling behind Washington (Mo.) 2-0 after 20 minutes in the sectional final Nov. 19 before rallying for a 4-2 win. The Thunder scored comfortable wins over Penn State-Behrend, Capital University and Wisconsin-Whitewater in the tournament’s first three rounds.
Wheaton coach Pete Felske said Tuesday that he doesn’t know much about the Ithaca (15-3-3). But the Thunder isn’t likely to deviate from the game plan it has used all season.
“We’d like to get the ball moving pretty quickly,” Felske said Tuesday. “We want to keep the pace high, and we’re a high-pressure team, so we want to play high-pressure defense.”
The other side of the bracket features William Smith (20-0-1) and perennial power Messiah (21-0-1). The only blemish on the record of either team is the 0-0 draw they played against one another on Sept. 10.
Messiah is making its eighth consecutive trip to the Final Four and won titles in 2005, 2008 and 2009. The Falcons finished second in 2010.
“Real nice of them to invite us back to their party they have every year,” Felske joked.
Wheaton and Messiah have combined to win six of the past seven NCAA titles, but the Thunder are still smarting from the last time they met Messiah in the tournament. That was the 2008 championship match, a 5-0 Messiah romp that snapped Wheaton’s two-title winning streak.
“I just remember feeling like the seniors deserved better,” Kopelman said. “We kind of have a bitter taste in our mouths from that and just kind of want to prove ourselves.”
Kopelman stressed that the Thunder aren’t satisfied with another semifinal appearance. But Wheaton’s seniors did make a point of driving home a different — nearly hard-earned — message to their younger teammates this week.
“We’ve just been kind of emphasizing to treasure the experience and to soak it in,” Kopelman said. “Because you don’t know if you’ll be back.”
Basketball: Wheaton senior point guard Aaron Garriott was named the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin’s men’s basketball player of the week Monday.
Garriott is averaging 16.5 points, 2.5 rebounds and 2.5 assists a game this season, but his best performance came during the Thunder’s 82-52 win over Manchester Nov. 22. He scored a game-high 23 points and tallied 5 rebounds, 2 assists and 2 blocks.
Wheaton is off to a 4-0 start in 2011. The Thunder plays University of Chicago (4-1) at King Arena on Wednesday.