Shippensburg University enters regional football rankings for the first time this season
The Shippensburg University football team is ranked No. 8 in the second edition of the 2021 NCAA Super Region One rankings released Monday. The NCAA regional rankings are annually used to determine the teams that qualify for the NCAA Division II Football Championships.
The current rankings are available at https://www.ncaa.com/rankings/football/d2/regional-rankings.
Rankings will be released every Monday afternoon until the announcement of the tournament field, which is set Sunday, November 14. Each set of rankings includes all games played through the previous Sunday.
Seven teams from each of the four super regions will advance to the 2021 NCAA Division II Football Championships following the completion of the regular season, and the top seed in each super region will receive a first-round bye.
Shippensburg is in Super Region 1, the largest of the four super regions. Super Region 1 is comprised of all football teams in the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC), the Mountain East Conference (MEC), the Northeast-10 Conference (NE-10) and the Great Midwest Athletic Conference (GMAC) as well as independents Bluefield State and Post.
Shippensburg’s current record is 7-2 (4-2 in the PSAC Eastern Division). They’ll close their 2021 season with two home games, Nov. 6 against Lock Haven and Nov. 13 against Mercyhurst. Games start at 1 p.m.
Shippensburg, Shepherd women’s soccer teams play to a draw
The Shippensburg University women’s soccer team tied 2-2 in its regular season home finale on Monday against Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) Eastern Division opponent Shepherd at David See Field.
After a scoreless first half, Shippensburg (4-11-2, 4-9-2 PSAC East) broke the scoring drought in the 50th minute on the first goal of the season by senior Allie Christman (Royersford, Pa./Spring-Ford), which came from sophomore Abbi Czarnecki’s (Walnutport, Pa./Northampton) assist.
With Shippensburg trailing 2-1 in the 78th minute, senior K.K. O’Donnell (Limerick, Pa./Spring-Ford) sent a long corner kick that was headed into the goal by Christman. It was Christman’s first multi-goal performance since 2018 against West Chester.
Shepherd (4-10-2, 3-10-2) responded to the first Raider goal by scoring just 14 seconds later when Delaney Bittner tallied off a Paris Kimbrell pass. Almost three minutes later, the Rams scored in reverse order, a Kimbrell goal off a Bittner assist.
Goalkeeper Faith Geraci produced 13 saves for Shepherd in the tie. Kendra Barlow made two saves for Shippensburg.
