GRANTHAM,Pa.— In the team's third visit to the MAC Commonwealth Tournament in the last three seasons, Eastern University Women's Soccer faced a tough task in playing the No. 4 ranked Messiah University Falcons on their home field. Messiah (18-2) scored a pair of first-half goals and added a second-half tally to advance to the MAC Commonwealth Championship match with a 3-0 win. 

The Eagles 9-5-5 came into the match having allowed only one goal in the last five games. Tonight, however, Eastern faced a Messiah squad that had outscored league opponents by a 24-1 margin. The Eagles were the only league team to find a goal against the Falcons. 

The Eagles started the game on the front foot and had early possession in the Messiah zone. Those positive moves left space for the hosts, and the Falcons found an early goal on a strong move up the left side. While Eastern has scored twice against Messiah in the last two years, the Falcon's early goal made the task ahead even more challenging. 

The Eagles found a chance on a restart and earned a corner off the chance, but they were unable to turn that into a shot on goal. Messiah doubled the lead on a shot through traffic in the 24th minute. Messiah had all 16 first-half shots. Faith Leake made six of her eight saves before intermission. 

Messiah scored a third goal just after the hour mark to secure the result. 

The game is the final game for a senior class that saw the program move from a one-win first year to three-straight MAC Commonwealth post-season berths. In 19 matches this fall, opposing teams scored only 14 times against the Eagles. Messiah scored eight of those goals. Including a 0-0 tie against a ranked Misericordia team, the Eastern defense had 12 shutouts this fall. 

Messiah advances to a MAC Commonwealth Championship Match for the 25th consecutive season. The Falcons will host Stevenson in the final. The Mustangs won, 2-1, at York despite being out-shot by a 24-5 margin.