The 20 most memorable and outstanding teams, athletes and moments of the last 20 years (No. 15-11)

As the curtain falls on 2020, Millersville University’s athletic communications staff looked back at the last 20 years and counted 14 PSAC Championships and more than 70 All-Americans for the Marauders. But championships and awards become titles, trophies, and words on a wall. There are real people with fantastic stories and accomplishments that are too frequently overlooked or forgotten--lost to history and later discovered as a faceless name on a list. It’s time to remember 20 of the most memorable and outstanding teams, athletes and moments of the last 20 years. 

Admittedly, this list is arbitrary and likely incomplete. There is no formula or criteria to share. Making the cut at 20, loads of worthy teams and athletes are left off the list. That doesn’t make those accomplishments any less meaningful. It’s impossible to compare a team championship to a record-setting career to a one-game, one-day performance. This list isn’t about an official ranking. It’s about memories. 

This is part two of four.  

15. A MATCH TO REMEMBER

Records fall, milestones reached in women’s volleyball’s thrilling victory over Shippensburg (2019)

Everything changed the moment Jayci Suseland walked into Brian Smith’s office in Jefferson Hall. Smith had built a strong core in recruiting—Katie Laughman, Lindsey Blevins, Haley Butler and Kat Forry. All were returning starters on an up-and-coming team. But Suseland, a 6-feet-3 inch outside hitter, was a game changer. 

For a long stretch in the 1990s, Millersville volleyball ruled the PSAC East, winning seven of eight division titles between 1993 and 1999. But the program fell on hard times soon after and went 15 years without a season finishing above .500. Smith, a Millersville alum, methodically improved the club, going 18-10 in 2017, and he looked forward to his young team taking another step in 2018. That’s when Suseland arrived and the team didn’t take a step. It took a leap. Suseland led the PSAC in kills per set and Millersville won its first PSAC East title in 20 years. 

All that background leads us to Nov. 15, 2019.  Millersville entered the match 23-7 and 13-4 in a loaded PSAC. Shippensburg, that night’s opponent, had won 16 of 17 PSAC matches and had won 18 of the last 21 match-ups against Millersville. But Millersville had won 22 consecutive home matches and desperately needed a win to improve its chance at its first NCAA regional appearance in 24 years. 

The two hours that followed showed Millersville’s mettle. After years of dwelling in the PSAC’s basement, the Marauders proved they belonged with the region’s best. Shippensburg skunked Millersville 25-15 in the first set and held set point at 25-24 in the second. Millersville fought off two set points and won a 30-28 decision. Shippensburg rolled in the third 25-14, putting Millersville in must-win mode in the fourth set. With the set tied at 22-22, the teams traded the next 12 points, and with Pucillo Gymnasium rocking, Suseland powered a kill to win the set 30-28 and force a deciding fifth set. Sensing the opportunity for an upset and feeling the magic of the moment, the Pucillo crowd was as electric as it had been in ages. The Marauders fed off that energy and scored 11 of the first 15 points of the fifth, and Blevins closed the memorable victory with a kill. Millersville played flawlessly with its back against the wall. Over the final two sets, the team totaled 30 kills to four errors, including a perfect fifth set of nine kills and no errors. 

To make the evening all the more meaningful, Suseland broke a 24-year-old single-season kills record, Laughman totaled 54 assists to break a single-season record that had stood since 1992, and Blevins became just the 10th player in program history to record 1,000 career kills—all in the same night. 

Millersville would go on to host a PSAC Tournament match and qualify for the NCAA Tournament for just the second time in school history. There, the Marauders beat that same Shippensburg team in another five-set epic. But that night in Pucillo was as exciting as any. 

14. NO ONE COULD HAVE CALLED IT

Millersville baseball’s unexpected run to the 2008 PSAC East championship (2008)

On March 30, 2008, Jon Shehan decided it might be time to start looking for a new job. Millersville had fallen to 6-20 after being swept by Shippensburg, the second game of which saw Millersville muster two hits and get shut out. The baseball program hit rock bottom the year prior. The team went 9-37 following several years of restrictive NCAA probation. Coaches couldn’t actively recruit. The program was dead in the water. After that season, the team needed a head coach. New athletic director Peg Kauffman handed an interim tag to a 26-year-old Shehan, who had all of one season of coaching experience, and it was as an assistant for a nine-win team. 

Shehan didn’t realize it. He couldn’t have realized it. But the month that followed turned into something out of a Hollywood movie script. The 2008 Millersville Marauders were about to become the equivalent of the “Major League” Cleveland Indians. They didn’t pitch it well (a team ERA of 6.09) or hit it all that well (seventh in the PSAC in hitting), but one of the beautiful aspects of baseball is that sometimes the whole is greater than the sum of its parts and that creates unexplainable magic. 

The weekend after the Shippensburg sweep, Millersville broke a 10-game losing streak by taking a doubleheader from Bloomsburg. It was the first time the program had swept a PSAC East doubleheader in three years. The next day at home, the magic really started. Millersville won game one, and in the nightcap, the teams went tied 2-2 into extra innings. In the top of the ninth, Bloomsburg started with a single, and the next batter, who was sacrifice bunting, reached on an error. But Millersville pitcher Brett Rhoads, who pitched all nine innings, escaped with a double play and strikeout. In the bottom of the ninth, Derek Kline stepped in with one out and smashed a solo home run for a walk-off win. Those four wins got Millersville rolling. The team miraculously won 15 of the next 17 games, and both losses were by just one run apiece. 

Heading into the final day of the regular season against East Stroudsburg, Millersville, a team that finished dead last in the division the year prior, was in position to win it. West Chester, a team that finished with 45 wins, was a game back in the standings. Millersville gave up seven unearned runs in a game one loss at East Strodusburg and lost game two, 5-3. Seemingly, the magic had run out. But in Kutztown, the Golden Bears played spoiler and beat West Chester twice. Millersville had won the PSAC East. 

In retrospect, it’s so beautifully poetic. Kline, cut at Shippensburg, shows up at Millersville before the start of the season and becomes a hall of famer, playing a significant role in transforming the program. The team’s starting catcher began his career at Pitt. It didn’t work out so he came back home to Lancaster. That was Miles Gallagher, who is now the university’s athletic director. For Shehan, well, the young coach with no experience had the interim tag removed a couple months later. And here we are, six PSAC East titles and two regional championships later. 

“No one believed we would have success,” said Gallagher. “First-time head coach, almost completely new roster with young players with no college experience. But something clicked. We believed in each other, found our roles and kept find a way to win.”

13. THE PARKER-TESTA CONNECTION AND FINDING THE PIECES TO THE PUZZLE

The hall of fame duo got the right teammates at the right time (2006-07)

Charlie Parker and Greg Testa are two all-timers in a program filled with legends. Both Parker and Testa are in the Millersville University Athletics Hall of Fame. Both rank in the top seven in career points scored, top eight in career assists and top three in career steals. But even those two needed the right players around them to win a championship. 

In 2004-05, when Parker was a freshman and Testa was a sophomore, the young duo led a 22-win team in scoring and reached the PSAC Championship game. But with the graduation of Brian Jones, Anthony Abrams and Toochi Udeinya, Parker and Testa had to forge their own path. And without the supporting cast, it wasn’t pretty. Millersville struggled to a 10-17 record. Testa was great, averaging 19.7 points per game and nearly 5.0 assists per game. Parker averaged 17.8 points and 6.0 rebounds per game. Both were named All-PSAC East. But the team lost 10 games by single digits. It was clear that even two hall of famers needed some help.  

To survive the PSAC East, a team needs a certain toughness. A team needs grit. If Parker and Testa made plays, they needed someone to do the dirty work. Enter Bernard Brown and RayQuan Miles. Brown and Miles were both supremely athletic big men with quick bounces, able to patrol the paint, block shots and grab rebounds. They didn’t need to score to be effective. Getting put backs and slamming the occasional alley-oop from Parker was enough. Teams also could no longer key in on Parker and Testa. Transfer Reggie Bates gave Millersville a third explosive scorer, one who could create his own shot (12.8 points per game) and stretch the floor with a 3-pointer (.360 from three). 

After a two-point season opening road loss to a very strong Shippensburg team, Millersville ripped off 16 consecutive victories, scoring 80 or more points 10 times and winning by double-digits 12 times. The new formula never worked better than it did in the PSAC East-clinching 83-81 win at Cheyney on Feb. 21. Parker struggled shooting and managed just seven points. But Bates poured in 19. Charles Jones came off the bench and scored 16, including five key free throws in overtime. In the final 10 minutes of regulation and in the overtime, Testa and Parker combined for nine points while their teammates scored 29. 

No team in the PSAC could match Millersville’s athleticism and offensive skill. The team could win any style game you wanted to play. In the PSAC Tournament, the Marauders won slow-paced slugfests against East Stroudsburg (63-59) and Edinboro (65-55), and then brought Millersville a championship with a 79-68 triumph over Cheyney in the title game. Parker controlled every facet of the game, scoring 19 points and totaling eight rebounds, five assists and three steals. Testa, who earned PSAC Tournament MVP honors with 56 points in the three games, scored 16, and so did the unsung Jones. 

How good was this team this 28-win team? Very likely national championship good. The team advanced to the Sweet 16 where it met top-seed Barton on the Bulldogs’ home floor. Millersville led by three at the half but went cold in the final 20 minutes. The game was much closer than the 76-65 final would indicate. Millersville trailed by two with just seven minutes left but made just one field goal the rest of the way, and Barton stretched the margin at the free throw line.  Another night might have meant a different result. Barton went on to win a national championship, pulling off a memorable last-second finish to beat a Winona State team with a 57-game winning streak. The point is that Millersville was just as good as any team in the country that year, and it’s because the Parker-Testa connection had the right teammates to make it work. 

12. MARAUDERS CATCH FIRE

Women’s basketball rides a wave of momentum to get Mary Fleig her PSAC Championship (2005)

It was Jan. 16, and Millersville was 6-8. By this time in the course of Mary Fleig’s coaching career, her teams were routinely winning 20-plus games each year. A 6-8 start, especially one for a team loaded with veteran players like future hall of famer Kristy Garner, Danielle Marshall, Destinee Parker-Stewart, Jayeneca Bailey and Branden Lippy, was shocking. 

But suddenly, the team became unbeatable. Marshall scored 26 points in a 64-61 win over Shippensburg. Millersville got back to .500 in a one-sided win over Mansfield in the PSAC East opener. Marshall or Garner led the team in scoring in each of the next 10 games, and Garner, one of the few players in program history with 1,000 points and 1,000 rebounds, grabbed double-digit boards in eight in a row. The Marauders incredibly ran the table, winning their final 12 regular season games. As usual, Fleig’s Marauders won with a suffocating defense.  In those 12 wins, only one team scored more than 61 points, and Millersville won that game by 19. 

The team ran away with the PSAC East title, and Marshall scored 24 in a 13-point win over Kutztown in the first round of the PSAC Tournament. In the semifinals, Lippy and Garner did just enough from the free throw line late to hold of Clarion. That win was Millersville’s 14th in a row, which tied the PSAC’s modern era record. 

Surely, this run was all too good to be true and would flame out against three-time defending PSAC Champion and defending national champion California (Pa.) in the championship game. Right? After all, California had won an astonishing 39 consecutive games against PSAC East teams. But this Millersville team just wasn’t going to lose, not on its home floor. The championship game was tied at the half, and Millersville led 46-44 five minutes into the second half when an offensive put-back by Carolyn Franchetti started a 15-6 Millersville run that opened an 11-point lead with 8:43 left. CalU crept within three late, but Parker-Stewart, Marshall and Bailey did enough to put the game away at the free throw line. Marshall was voted the PSAC Tournament’s MVP. 

Millersville’s 15th consecutive win gave Fleig her one and only PSAC Championship and the school’s first since 1987. 

11. TWICE AS NICE

Men’s soccer pulls off the rare feat of back-to-back PSAC Championships (2019)

To be a successful Division II soccer program, the conventional thinking is that you must recruit internationally. But Steve Widdowson’s Millersville program is a bit of anomaly. In many ways, out of necessity, he recruits and develops homegrown, area players. He doesn’t necessarily chase after the most skilled players. He looks for players with a drive, an edge, an attitude--players that mirror their coaches’ competitiveness and desire to win. That formula has made the Marauders one of the most consistent programs in the region, and it has brought the university three conference titles in the last nine years after it went 50 years without one. 

Widdowson’s teams grind. They play close matches and find ways to win. That was true in 2018 when the Marauders did not allow more than three goals in a match all year, played nine overtime matches and won the PSAC Championship in a heart-stopping shootout at West Chester (That moment probably should have made this list, too). The next year, Millersville had to replace its two leading goal scorers including PSAC Championship hero Jaxson Burns. Defending a PSAC Championship was a nearly impossible task. It had happened only twice in the previous 50 years. But on Nov. 17, 2019, Millersville found its way back to the championship game utilizing the familiar formula. Senior Jacob Gosselin, who had never scored more than seven goals in a season, had been developed into the PSAC East Athlete of the Year with 12 goals, and senior goalkeeper Darian McCauley, who was no stranger to the big stage, anchored a defense that had not allowed more than two goals in 16 consecutive matches. The PSAC East title brought Millersville homefield advantage but Gannon was 17-1 and ranked No. 8 in Division II. The Golden Knights had already beaten Millersville. 

Maybe overmatched but never out-fought, Millersville blanked the high-powered Golden Knights for 90 minutes. The game-winner came from freshman (and local, homegrown talent) Bob Hennessey 30 seconds into the second half on an assist from Lancaster’s own Matteo Adiletta. It marked Hennessey’s fourth goal of the season and was a brilliant play in which he out-maneuvered three defenders and squeezed a left-footed shot between the keeper’s foot in the left post. Chances were few for Gannon, and with 18 seconds left, Gannon took a free kick from just outside the penalty box. Millersville’s wall stoned the shot as time ticked away. 

“To go back-to-back is unbelievable,” said Widdowson after the win. “…This is what we've built up to. It's a marathon not a sprint, and we've timed it right again."

It was undoubtedly an upset and considering that a PSAC repeat had been accomplished three times in 50 years, it was incredibly unlikely. But Millersville men’s soccer defies convention. They always expect to win, and they always do it their way.