Box Score
UNIVERSITY CENTER, Mich. -- Notre Dame fell to Saginaw Valley State (Mich.), 1-0, in Sunday's Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference title game.

The No. 18 (National Soccer Coaches Association of America) Cardinals (15-2-3) got a first-half goal and played tremendous defense in earning their third straight GLIAC crown.  The GLIAC tournament's top-seeded squad allowed just three shots (one on goal) in the game's second half in earning its seventh straight shutout victory.

For Notre Dame (14-5) the loss marked the Falcons' second to SVSU this season.  The Cardinals downed the Falcons, 3-2, at the SVSU Soccer Complex -- the site of this weekend's GLIAC event -- on Sept. 28.  NDC had advanced to the circuit's title match with a 1-0, double-overtime win over Ohio Dominican on Friday. For the Lads in Blue & White, Sunday's loss snapped a four-game winning streak.

In a two-way defensive struggle, Saginaw Valley put just two shots on goal, but one found nylon and that was one more than NDC could plant in the back of the net.

Saginaw Valley scored its first-half goal in the 34th minute, when Craig Neal chipped an 18-yarder to the back post to beat NDC keeper Jan Skorupinski.  That goal -- Neal's third of the season -- came on a Michael Lamb feed.  It would be the only score in a half that saw the Cardinals outshoot the Falcons, 5-4, in an evenly played 45 minutes of soccer.

A staunch SVSU defense made that goal stand up with a near flawless performance in the final 45 minutes.  The Cardinals, who had outscored foes, 14-0, over their previous six games, allowed just three shots in the second half.  

Overall, however, the Falcons doubled up the Cardinals in shots on goal, 4-2.

With the victory in Sunday's GLIAC title match, the Cardinals earn an automatic berth in the upcoming NCAA-II National Championship Tournament, which is a slated to begin with intra-regional matches on Nov. 8.