In less than two days, the women's Final Four in San Antonio kicks off with Friday morning semi-finals. Later on Friday, the men start their semi-final rounds, and on Saturday, we'll have two new national champions for 2009. Will the Messiah men make it two in a row? If so, they will have taken five of the last six national titles. And the Falcon women can repeat as well, having also won in 2008.

The NCAA Division III championship site for both men and women can be found here. This link provides information on live scores, video, and updated results.

In Friday's first match at 11:00 a.m., No. 1 Messiah and No. 9 The College of New Jersey go head to head as they have done in previous Final Four matches. In 2005, Messiah defeated TCNJ 1-0 for the national title, and in 2007 the Falcons won 2-0 in the semis before falling to Wheaton (Ill.) in the championship match. TCNJ also faced Wheaton in the final in 2006, but came away with a loss. For TCNJ, this is the fifth Final Four appearance in seven years and the Lions are ready to make this trip pay off. Should they make the finals this year, they will play at 1:00 p.m. on Saturday.

At 1:30 p.m., No. 12 Washington University faces off against No. 21 Lynchburg. Earlier in the season, Lynchburg played Messiah to a 1-1 draw, giving the Falcons their best match of the season. Bear SID Chris Mitchell has prepared a thorough Washington University women's preview.

In the men's tournament, No. 1 Messiah is scheduled to play No. 13 Williams at 5:00 p.m., while No. 14 Dominican and Calvin face off at 7:30 p.m. The Williams College SID Dick Quinn has prepared a nice Williams preview of the the Williams/Messiah match, as well as thorough write-up on the Ephs season. Corey Furman of Messiah College has written up a tournament preview of the men's and women's teams. Click to read the Messiah men's preview, and here for the Messiah women's preview.

Yesterday's preview of the Dominican Stars is available in Notables, and below is a write up on Calvin's first visit to the Final Four. This was written with help from Calvin SID Jeffrey Febus.

The Knights of Calvin College are making their first-ever trip to the Final Four in men's soccer. Calvin, located in Grand Rapids, Michigan, is the second team ever from the MIAA to advance to the Final Four as Alma also achieved the feat in 1999. Calvin and Alma shared the 1999 MIAA title but Alma grabbed conference AQ due a head-to-head tiebreaker. Alma's head coach in 1999 was current Messiah head women's soccer coach Scott Frey, who will also be in San Antonio this weekend.

Calvin is making its ninth appearance in the NCAA Tournament including its fifth under current head coach Chris Hughes. Calvin is 7-7-3 all-time in Division III Tournament play including going 4-3-3 under Hughes, who is in his eighth year as the Calvin men's soccer coach. A 1992 Calvin graduate, Hughes was a member of the Calvin men's soccer team and was a three-year starter on defense.

Heading into the Final Four, Hughes is 117-38-15 for a winning percentage of .718. After last season, Hughes was ranked 21st nationally in terms of winning percentage for active Division III men's soccer coaches. Coach Hughes has led the Knights to five MIAA titles, five trips to the NCAA Tournament and was named the Great Lakes Regional Coach of the Year in 2004.

Calvin has shared one common opponent with Dominican in the 2009 season; Wheaton (Ill.). While Wheaton edged the Stars 1-0 earlier in the season, Calvin defeated their non-conference rival 2-1 in September. Calvin then did it again, defeating Wheaton 2-1 in a first round tournament match at Wheaton.

Calvin had just as much success in their conference this season, capturing its 20th MIAA title in men's soccer. Heading into the final week of conference play, Calvin's MIAA title hopes were very much in doubt as the Knights trailed Hope by three points with two games left to play. Calvin then defeated Trine 3-2 while Hope tied Olivet 0-0 to allow Calvin to move within a point of Hope. Calvin then moved past Hope for the league title by defeating Hope 1-0 in the regular season finale for both teams, giving the Knights the league crown by two points. The Knights have proven an ability to win the close matches this season and that momentum has carried over to the post-season: Calvin is 2-0 in shootouts in the tournament, defeating Wartburg in a second round shootout and then downing Transylvania in a shootout on November 21 in the national quarterfinals.

In fitting fashion, Calvin recently celebrated its 50th year of varsity men's soccer. Calvin soccer got its start in 1959, and in 51 years of men's soccer, Calvin has an overall record of 509-248-68 for a winning percentage of .644.