A total team effort in a 3-0 whitewashing of Goshen College secured a first ever regular season MCC Championship for the Spring Arbor University women's soccer team.
Spring Arbor has finished as runner's up in the regular season championship in each of it's first two years in the conference, though the Cougars won the conference tournament in 2004 and advanced on to win the NAIA regional and make an appearance at the NAIA national tournament.
Spring Arbor University head coach Jason Crist used all of his available players in each half of the match with the Maple Leafs, and was pleased with the overall performance of his players. "We really took a look at some things tonight," commented Crist. We played a different system than the ones we have been working with, and put some players into some new roles. Although there were moments where I was scratching my head, I feel like we played well against a noticeably improved Goshen team."
SAU jumped out to an early lead after Heather Stenglein was drilled to the ground in the penalty area by a Goshen defender on her way to the Maple Leaf net. Stenglein converted the resulting penalty kick for her fourth goal of the season in the 9th minute of play. She was back at it moments later when after taking a Megan Mains feed she launched a left footed rocket that glanced off the shoulder of a Goshen defender and found the top right corner of the net to give SAU a two goal cushion.
Freshman Heidi Sharp notched her first career goal from the outside midfield position, as she cleaned up a rebound to put SAU up 3-0 midway through the opening half.
Spring Arbor continued to dominate play, and were cautious of Goshen counter attacks throughout the evening. Overall the Cougars out-shot the Maple Leafs 25-4 on the night. Junior netminder Kristin Faraday went the distance between the pipes and picked up the shutout with one save for Spring Arbor.
SAU is back in action when they kick off the 2006 post season at home, on Saturday, October 21. They will likely face the Maple Leafs again in a match up of the #2 and #7 seeds in the tournament.
