ONU Men's Soccer to the Sweet 16

 The ONU Men’s soccer team is headed to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA tournament. The soccer team was able to overcome one of the harder first two games of the NCAA tournament in a very good Lynchburg side that was full of a lot of fifth year seniors and of course home field advantage. The boys were able to battle for one hundred and ten minutes till that was not enough for either side to take home the win. They would go into penalty kicks and Lucas Hickey, Junior goalkeeper was able to make two huge saves to allow Stephan Duggan, Junior defender to make his penalty kick to send the Polar Bears to the second round of the NCAA tournament and would face the number one team in the country, Messiah. 

Personally I am able to be around all of the boys and to understand the emotions and how they feel about the season. One of the funny things that not many people know about the guys is that last season before the NCAA tournament we were joking about how we wanted to play Messiah and how they didn't know what they would be getting and all this and that. Well, when we saw that the only way to get to the Sweet 16 we kept saying the same thing. When we got into the game, the boys were locked in as much as possible and understood the task at hand. The boys would start out very well and have some chances at goal until William Shaffer, Senior midfielder hit a beautiful ball into Brenden Gervers to head the ball home to put the Polar Bears up 1-0 against the number one team in the country. From then on it was a battle to keep Messiah from putting one in the back of the net. The guys would do just that and make sure that they were able to make a statement in the NCAA tournament. The comments from a lot of people on campus was very surprising to a lot of us to see the amount of support from the university. 

Now the boys are traveling up to Boston, Massachusetts to battle in two tough games to make another statement and book their ticket to the Final four. As always, GO BEARS!!!