Hellooooo Neumann!
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| Neumann battles the defending champions. (Photo: Messiah Sports Information) |
So what's the bigger story here? That Messiah lost? That Messiah lost to the likes of Neumann? Or that Neumann defeated a team such as Messiah? It's a fair question as they are all big deals.
Mild upsets happen all the time and occasionally you have a big upset. And one of the biggest first round upsets in recent times happened Saturday when Randolph beat Christopher Newport. If Messiah were merely this year's No. 1 team, the story would be big, but not bigger than big. Messiah, however, is the gold standard of D-III men's soccer. Eight national titles in eleven years is . . . otherworldly. They only fell short at the semifinal stage in two of the other three years in that run and the other year they didn't even lose, eliminated on penalty kicks. A Final Four fixture for seven straight years and ten of the last eleven. The elite men's program with a 51-4-2 tournament record from 1999 through Sunday night. That's an amazing .912 winning percentage in tournament play. No one comes close to that level of sustained post-season success over any time frame even approaching half that long.
And that's why Trinity (Tx.) going one-and-out is not near as big news. That's why Christopher Newport being similarly upset by Randolph in the first round isn't as shocking. And those results are huge results. But no offense to those schools; they are not Messiah.
And Messiah is not Neumann. Neumann will be playing next weekend and Messiah will not. Neumann has never played soccer so late into the year while Messiah hasn't had to clean out their lockers before Thanksgiving since 2003. If Messiah had gotten a tough draw that pitted them against a Montclair State or some such school in the second round, this also would not be such a big deal. This year's team wasn't steamrolling opponents and Messiah's next tournament loss was bound to come sooner or later. However, a ranked team with tournament experience would have made a more plausible scenario for a Messiah loss. But not a minnow. Messia...
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