No Division III school has made as many appearances in the NCAA Division III Women’s Soccer Tournament as Ithaca College, yet the women’s soccer team has only two NCAA Championship titles to its name.

The main obstacles in the Blue and Gold’s quest for a national title have been William Smith College and defending Division III NCAA Champion Messiah College.

“They always seem to be in the tournament toward the very end when all the remaining teams are playing with high levels of passion and energy,” senior forward and midfielder Amy Scheffer said.

Before a thrilling win at William Smith’s Cozzens Field on Sunday that ended in penalty kicks, the Herons had beat the Bombers in four of the past six regular season games. Three of the four losses were decided by a single goal.

The Bombers’ 1–0 double-overtime loss to William Smith on Sept. 30 at Carp Wood Field was one of the team’s most bitter defeats this season. Ithaca was ranked second in the NCAA Eastern Region behind William Smith before the loss. Senior midfielder and forward Liz Masucci said she was frustrated by the team’s lack of execution in the match.

“We had some things go our way in that game and some things that went their way,” she said. “But it came down to us not being able to put one in the back of the net and getting beat on a late corner kick.”

There is additional fuel to the fire between the two schools, as Head Coach Mindy Quigg was captain and goalkeeper for the Herons’ 1988 National Championship team. William Smith Head Coach Aliceann Wilber coached Quigg in her time there. Sixteen seasons and 10 playoff berths later, Quigg is still looking for her first national title as a coach.

“It’s less about the fact that I played for [Wilber] and more about how we usually end up being the top two teams in the state when we play each other,” Quigg said.

Messiah spoiled the Bombers’ dream of a national championship in back-to-back seasons in 2006 and 2007. This season, the Bombers had played their second regular season game at Messiah, and though they lost 4–1, junior defender Kelly Gannon said the game helped the team realize they could compete with high levels of talent in Division III soccer.

“Coach Quigg does a good job of getting us challenging, nonconference opponents early in the season so we know the caliber of teams we have to face if we can get to the regional playoffs,” she said.  

Quigg said preseason scrimmages at Cornell University and the University of Rochester helped the team experience playofflike competition.

“Our scrimmages were great opportunities for our team, and especially the younger players, to make progress before getting some regular season action,” she said.

In order to continue in the postseason and take down Rowan University on Saturday, Quigg said her team has to be consistent and play with the same one-game-at-a-time mind-set as it has in the past.

“We’ll have a lot to look forward to if we continue to train hard and are focused on each individual task at hand,” she said. “A lot of our success this year and in season’s past has to do with personality, a good attitude and hard work — and we put a lot of pride in all of those traits.”

Box Score (SO Period [110:00]) - #15 Ithaca vs #6 William Smith (11/15/09 at Geneva, N.Y.)