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This time, the celebration lasted all of two minutes.
Time of the announcement of Trine University’s first-round NCAA Division III football playoff game: 3:10 p.m. Sunday.
Time when Trine’s coaches were in their offices beginning to break that matchup down: 3:12.
Just one small clue as to how different things are these days for the Thunder, who went unbeaten in the MIAA (6-0), won the conference title for the first time and made the D-III playoffs for the first time last November.
“Just a bunch of craziness, basically,” Trine coach Matt Land recalls.
And this time, with the 9-1 Thunder preparing to travel to unbeaten, No. 7 Case Western Reserve (10-0) on Saturday?
“Everybody always says the best thing about a freshman is he turns into a sophomore,” Land says. “Well, the best thing about getting into the playoffs is the next time you’re there, you’ve been there.
“This year, we haven’t won a playoff game. So that’s what we concentrated on from Day 1 was winning conference title and winning a playoff game.”
Case Western not only has a 31-game regular-season winning streak but one of the nation’s best passing attacks. Dan Whalen has thrown for 3,010 yards and 31 touchdowns this year with just seven interceptions. His efficiency rating is an absurd 178.6.
IPFW soccer player Lisa Underwood was named October Female Athlete of the Month by the Summit League.
Underwood, a freshman from Bishop Dwenger, had three multigoal matches in the month and set two school records, one for goals in a season (11) and one for points in a season (24). During October, she scored eight goals in nine matches, including one game-winner.
Warsaw graduate Ashley Henry, a sophomore at Taylor, qualified for the NAIA nationals in cross country by finishing 11th in her conference meet … Saint Francis junior Katie Christian, a Bishop Luers graduate and two-time all-conference soccer player, was named Defensive Player of the Year by the Mid-Central College Conference … Kent State senior volleyball player Jenny Keck, a Concordia graduate, earned the final Mid-American Conference East Defensive Player of the Week award after recording a triple-double (41 assists, 13 digs, 10 blocks) in a straight-set win over Miami (Ohio) … Northrop’s Bailee Price, a freshman at Tusculum (Tenn.), made the All-Freshman volleyball team in the Southern Athletic Conference.
