(Story courtesy of Colorado College)
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - Colorado College and Birmingham-Southern, the No. 1 and No. 2 seeds respectively, will play for the 2011 Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference championship thanks to semifinal wins on Friday. The CC Tigers downed Southwestern while Birmingham-Southern beat Sewanee for the second time in a week. Box Score | Official Site
Semifinal One Recap
Colorado College took another step toward its first-ever
NCAA tournament bid on Friday.
CC, riding a three-goal performance by freshman attackman Jake,
Smith, roared back from an early 2-0 deficit to claim a 10-4
victory over Southwestern University in the semifinals of the
Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference playoffs at Washburn
Field.
The Tigers, now 11-0 overall for the season, can claim the
league's first-ever playoff title and earn an automatic NCAA bid on
Sunday, when they meet Birmingham-Southern College in the SCAC
championship game at noon MT.
"We're happy to be playing,” said head coach Guy Van
Arsdale. “It's a big deal, an opportunity for this program
that's never been there to have complete self-determination in
terms of the NCAA tournament. We know that if we win on Sunday
we're going. That's a wonderful thing to have. I think the big
thing for us will be how we handle the weight of that kind of
background to the game, knowing what's at stake.”
Birmingham-Southern defeated Sewanee: University of the South by a
9-7 count in the other semifinal matchup later on Friday.
Southwestern's Pirates, who finished fourth in the SCAC standings,
grabbed their early lead on goals 4:13 apart midway through the
first quarter by Gus Brunger and Edward Williams. CC didn't get on
the scoreboard until Carson Christman converted on his own rebound
with 12.9 seconds left in the period.
The Tigers evened the count on an unassisted effort by Charles
Curtis at 1:03 of the second frame.
Junior midfielder James Mauk set up Smith's first tally of the
contest at 9:25, putting Colorado College ahead to stay. Moses
Taylor and Smith struck at 10:07 and 11:12, respectively, as CC
scored three times in a span of 1:47 before Williams pulled
Southwestern to within 5-3 at halftime.
Junior goalie Chris O'Quain, who finished with 25 saves, kept the
visitors close until the Tigers bumped their lead to 8-4 on a pair
of goals by Jack Kreitler and Steve Rijo in the final four minutes
of the third period. Kreitler and Rijo added unassisted goals
midway through the fourth quarter to make it 10-4.
“Southwestern did a nice job of preparing and took away our
transition game,” Van Arsdale said. “They conceded the
clear, got back in and sat in the zone. Then they relied on the
goaltender to keep them in the game, and he did. I never felt we
were in danger of not getting the outcome we wanted. It's just [a
matter of] how we got there.”
Christman collected a pair of assists to go with his early goal.
Freshman goaltender Zach Steedman made five saves in the Colorado
College nets.
Semifinal Two Recap
Thanks in no small measure to Matt Ivie and D.J. Ward,
Birmingham-Southern College will be playing for its first Southern
Collegiate Athletic Conference championship crown on Sunday.
Ivie scored four goals and Ward added three on Friday night,
leading the Panthers to a 9-7 victory over Sewanee: University of
The South in the SCAC semifinals at Colorado College's Washburn
Field. The triumph vaulted them into Sunday's title contest at noon
against undefeated regular-season champion and host CC.
Birmingham-Southern, which improved to 9-6 overall for the season,
struck twice in the opening 3:25 of play to grab a quick 2-0 lead.
But it wasn't until the 6:58 mark of the fourth quarter, when Ward
beat Sewanee goaltender Tommy Healy from in close on the left side,
that favored BSC went ahead to stay at 7-6. That was Ward's third
tally of the contest, and when Ivie added his third just four
seconds later, the Tigers were toast.
Ivie's fourth of the night iced the win with 9.6 seconds left to
play.
Sophomore goalie Andrew Huffman backstopped the triumph with 12
saves in the Panther nets. Sewanee's Tommy Healy, a freshman,
finished with 14.
Healy's teammates rallied from their early deficit to pull even on
goals 3:35 apart in the opening period by Thomasson, who had two
goals and two assists for the night, and Brendan Eisenbrandt. After
the teams battled to a 4-4 deadlock at halftime, the Tigers grabbed
leads of 5-4 and 6-5 in the third quarter on tallies by Thomas
Moore at 2:40 and Thomasson at 6:29.
Ward's second goal knotted the affair at 6-6 with 9:04
remaining.