Wednesday in the Colleges: Fragassi’s Golden Goal, a 29-Save Night in a Losing Cause
Wednesday was a Division II kind of night. The big Division I names mostly wait for the weekend, so the ranked DII and DIII programmes took the stage, and two of them needed something special.
Shippensburg steal it in overtime
No. 3 Shippensburg won 2-1 at Millersville, and Elaina Fragassi did the whole thing herself. The junior scored both Shippensburg goals, the winner 93 seconds into overtime.
Millersville had levelled through Erin Esterhuizen on 28 minutes and were that close to taking a ranked scalp. Instead, Fragassi settled it almost before the extra period had warmed up, and goalkeeper Meinke picked up the first win of her college career in the away cage. Some debut nights are quieter than others.
The goalkeeper who lost 4-1 and still stole the show
No. 10 Assumption beat Franklin Pierce 4-1 with four second-half goals. Read that scoreline and you’d assume a rout. Then read the rest of the stat line.
Assumption took 46 shots and won 15 penalty corners out of 16. Franklin Pierce goalkeeper Zoe Noorlag made 29 saves, tied for the most in Division II this season according to Assumption’s own report. Twenty-nine. Her team lost by three and she was still, by a distance, the busiest and best performer on the pitch.
Sometimes the scoreboard is a liar. This was one of those nights.
The Rock keep climbing
No. 8 Slippery Rock won 3-2 at Frostburg State and matched the programme’s highest win total in 36 years. The numbers behind it were one-way traffic: 26 shots to 6, 20 on goal to 4, corners 9 to 4. Frostburg hung in on the scoreboard, but The Rock’s season keeps gathering pace, and a record that has stood since before these players were born is now level.
The rest of Wednesday
No. 10 Rowan beat No. 24 TCNJ 4-1, handing TCNJ their first NJAC defeat of the season; Rowan are 13-3 and 5-0 in the conference. No. 23 Messiah shut out Montclair State 5-0. No. 9 Johns Hopkins beat Washington College 6-0, with Washington’s Charlotte Schurman making 17 saves to tie her career best in the loss — Wednesday was clearly goalkeeper appreciation night, just not on the scoreboard. No. 4 Stevenson beat Neumann 3-0 in the MAC Commonwealth. And DeSales hammered King’s 6-0 to clinch a MAC Freedom postseason place for the fifth straight year.
Thursday takes the spotlight back, though. No. 1 Maryland against No. 2 Northwestern is the game the whole college season has been pointing at, and by Friday morning the poll will have a new argument to settle. Tuesday’s round-up and the MAC honours are live too.
