Complete Game Notes

GAME INFORMATION
NCAA Division II Semifinal - South Region
No. 2 seed Millersville (19-2) vs. No. 1 seed Shippensburg (18-1)
Friday, Nov. 22, 2013 - 3:30 p.m.
National Training Center - Virginia Beach, Va.
Directions
NCAA Tournament Bracket

MEDIA INFORMATION
Live Video
NCAA Gamecenter
Official NCAA Program

TICKETS
NCAA.com/tickets
All Session Pass: $25 for adult; $20 for students, youth and senior citizens
Single Session: $20 for adult; $15 for students, youth and senior citizens
Parking is free and tailgating is allowed

SERIES INFORMATION
Shippensburg leads 42-29-8 (.582)
Shelly Behrens vs. Ship: 3-9
Bertie Landes vs. Millersville: 23-3
First Meeting: 1945 (Ville 5, Ship 0)
NCAA Meetings: First Meeting
PSAC Tournament: Ville leads, 3-2

GAME OVERVIEW
•  Millersville, the No. 2 seed from the NCAA South Region, makes its first-ever appearance in the NCAA Division II Semifinals Friday and faces a familiar foe in No. 1 seed Shippensburg. Millersville played in six NCAA Division III Tournaments from 1984-90 and even reached the Division III Championship game in 1985. This is Millersville's first trip to the Division II Tournament.
• Millersville, the PSAC Champions, used a first-half goal from Sarah Bomberger to defeat West Chester by a 1-0 score in the NCAA Quarterfinals held at Chryst Field at Biemesderfer Stadium in Millersville. It was Millersville's third consecutive postseason win by a 1-0 score. Lauren Sotzin made three saves for her school-record 11th shutout of the season and her fourth in the last five games. The Marauders not only defeated West Chester in the NCAA Quarterfinals, but they also topped the two-time defending national champions in the PSAC Semifinals and twice in the regular season, giving them four wins over one opponent in the same season for the first time in school history.

THE MATCH-UP
• From 1999-2010, Shippensburg dominated Millersville for 20 consecutive victories. But that series got much tighter in 2011 when Millersville pulled off a 3-2 win for its first win over the Raiders since 1998. Millersville and Shippensburg have now split the last six meetings. The last three games have been decided by 1-0 scores and six of the last seven have been decided by one goal.
• Millersville defeated Shippensburg in the 2012 PSAC Semifinals and then captured its first PSAC Championship since 1986 with a 1-0 win at Shippensburg in the 2013 title game. Millersville is 2-0 against the Raiders in the postseason, but this is the first NCAA Tournament meeting between the teams.
• Megan Jett scored a goal 7:55 into overtime to get Shippensburg a 1-0 overtime victory in the regular season meeting between the teams earlier this season. Sotzin made four saves for Millersville, and Carenna Neely made five for Shippensburg.  Shippensburg held a 13-7 edge in shots. In the conference championship game, Rachel Dickinson scored the game-winner in the 47th minute on a penalty stroke, and Sotzin's 10 saves and Megan Donlan's defensive save made the 1-0 score hold up. It was the first loss of Neely's goalkeeping career.
• Shippensburg has out-shot Millersville by a 32-12 margin and holds a 31-14 advantage in penalty corners in the two games this season. Shippensburg averages 3.68 goals per game, ranking fifth in Division II, and 2.73 margin of victory ranks second in the league. Millersville has limited the Raiders to just one goal in 147:55 minutes of action this season, though. And the Raiders have produced just two goals in the last three games against Millersville.
• While Millersville is a newcomer to the NCAA Division II Tournament, Shippensburg is in familiar territory. The Raiders have reached the NCAA Tournament in nine of the last 10 seasons and have played in the semifinals six times. They reached the championship game in 2010.
• Shippensburg is led by a quartet of goal scorers. Lauren Taylor leads the team with 15, and Bre White is the top point scorer with 13 goals and 11 assists.

ALL ABOUT DEFENSE
• Millersville may have only scored three goals in the postseason, but it has won all three games. Coach Behrens, a former goalkeeper, coaches as strong a defensive team as there is in the nation. Millersville has totaled 12 total shutouts this season, setting a new school record and leading all of Division II in the category and is tied with Division III Montclair State for the all-division lead in shutouts per game (0.57).
• The Marauders also lead all divisions in goals against average (0.52). With only 11 goals allowed in 21 games, Millersville has outscored its opponents by a staggering 57-goal margin.
• Since the start of the 2012 season, Millersville has shutout 22 of its 42 opponents and allowed a total of 33 goals.

ALL YOU NEED IS TWO
•  Dating back to the 2012 season, Millersville's last seven losses have been by shutout. Since the start of the 2012 season, Millersville is 26-0 when scoring at least two goals in a game. Millersville has not allowed more than two goals in any game this season and it has only occurred twice. Newberry scored two goals in an 11-2 trouncing, and Mercyhurst scored two in a 4-2 Millersville win in the second game of the season.

COMPLETE TURNAROUND
•  Before Shelly Behrens arrived at Millersville in 2008, the Marauders had been without a winning record since 1998. The program won four games in that nine-year span. Behrens has won 65 in her six seasons. Now with a 65-52 record as Marauder coach, Behrens is third on Millersville's all-time wins list behind Sandra Peters (98-68-30), who coached for 17 seasons from 1968-84, and Carol Miller, who led the team to an 86-51-18 record over eight seasons from 1985-92. Behrens' .556 winning percentage is fourth all-time. She, however, became the head coach in a time when the program needed a major rebuilding effort.  She has won at least seven games in each season. When she took over, Millersville hadn't won seven games in eight seasons.

NO PLACE LIKE HOME
•  Millersville went unbeatable at home this season with a 9-0 record, and it outscored opponents a staggering 35-1 at home. Millersville held its opponents scoreless over the last 477:01 at home.

DESERVED RECOGNITION
• Millersville took home some hardware after the PSAC awards were announced. Behrens was voted PSAC Coach of the Year for the second year in a row, and the coaches tabbed Arianna Grays as the freshman of the year. Champayne Hess, Sarah Bomberger, Rachel Dickinson and Lauren Sotzin were named All-PSAC First Team, and Brittany Troutman landed on the third team. Millersville received more first team picks than any other team in the league, and the four first teamers were the most in program history. Grays is the third freshman of the year in Behrens' six seasons but the first two--Sarah and Rachel Dickinson--won the award in the divisional format.

NOT PLAYING LIKE ROOKIES
• Grays flashed her offensive ability this season with seven goals, which tied for second on the team. She also added two assists for 16 points. Grays scored her first goal in her first collegiate game. Her goal total was the most by a Millersville freshman since Jaclyn Kulesza in 2004. Fellow freshmen Margaret Thorwart, Olivia Hershey and Robyn Spatichia have been intergral players in Behrens' rotation. The four have played in all 21 games. Thorwart has three goals and an assist and Hershey has two goals and an assist. Spatichia is the first sub for captain Brittany Troutman.

CAREER YEAR
•  Hess, a redshirt junior, earned her first All-PSAC honor. Hess served as Millersville's primary goal scorer with 10. She needed only 21 shots on goal for her 10 tallies and only five of her shots were not placed on goal. Hess also led the team with four game-winners. She is Millersville's first 10-goal scorer since Kristie Testa in 2009.

TEAMING UP
•  It is no coincidence that Millersville plays the game as a team. The connections run to the high school ranks. Millersville has nine players from three high schools. Alicia Youtz, Margaret Thorwart, Kierstyn Smith and Lauren Sotzin all attended Central Dauphin. Lauren Gerhart, Abby Spanos and Megan Donlan graduated in the same class from Lower Dauphin, and Randi Boyd and Sarah Bomberger graduated Manheim Central together.
• The team connections don't stop there. Behrens is a Lower Dauphin graduate herself and  her high school coach was Millersville field hockey legend Linda Kreiser.

FIELD HOCKEY FEVER
• Millersville energized the campus this season, and the NCAA Quarterfinal game against West Chester brought 600 fans to Biemesderfer Stadium. That was the second-largest crowd to watch a Division II postseason game and it was the fifth-largest crowd in Division II history.

COMFORTABLE SURROUNDINGS
• Millersville is no stranger to the turf at the National Training Center. The Marauders made a trip to Virginia Beach in October and played nationally-ranked Limestone (W, 2-1) and Newberry (11-2) on back-to-back days at the same facility they will play their semifinal game.

WELCOME BACK
• Coach Behrens is back in her old stomping grounds. A 1988 graduate of Old Dominion, Behrens played goalkeeper for the Monarchs and played on the 1984 national championship team and the 1985 runner-up team. Behrens started her head coaching career in Virginia, leading the Richmond and VCU programs. She also played and coached with U.S. teams.

SAVED BY SOTZIN
• In just her second season as a starter with the Marauders, Lauren Sotzin is making her mark as one of the top keepers in Division II. Sotzin was an All-PSAC First Team pick this season after earning second team honors in 2012. She was named PSAC Tournament MVP after saving 20 shots and posting two shutouts in two games.
• She is in the midst of a banner season. Sotzin leads all divisions in save percentage at 0.886 and also leads in goals against average at 0.44. Her 11 shutouts give her 19 in her career--a span of 44 games.
• Sotzin has already tied the school record for career victories with 34. She scored one as a freshman in 2011, 14 in 2012 and 19 in 2013. One of the current record holders is Millersville University Athletic Hall of Fame member Stacey Hollinger, who coincidentally was the goalkeeper on the last Millersville team to play in the NCAA Semifinals.
• Sotzin is now Division II's active career leader in saves percentage 0.836.

BALANCED ATTACK
• Millersville's offense is incredibly balanced with 15 players scoring at least one goal and no player scoring more than 10. Eight players have scored at least five goals, and seven players have taken at least 20 shots, with the leader, Rachel Dickinson, taking an average of just 2.4 per game. This stands in stark contrast to the three other teams still standing. Shippensburg's top four goal scorers account for 69 percent of the team's scoring. LIU Post, the nation's top scoring team, receives 62 percent of its scoring from just two players. Merrimack's four top scorers account for 70 percent of its team's goals.