Top 10 Moments in Miami Sports, 2005

10. Soccer defeats nationally ranked Michigan

Miami managed to get a big-time opponent for their home opener on September 11, and proceded to defeat the #17 Michigan Wolverines 1-0. Miami's only goal came in the 19th-minute as Megan Ortner streaked down the left side of the field and fired a cross in front of goal. Leigh Terry and Shannon Chew shared time in goal and combined for the shutout.

The win over Michigan was only Miami's second win over a nationally ranked opponent, and their first in five years. Miami won despite playing short-handed for the final five minutes of the game after Jennifer Rush was red-carded at 84:31.

9. Miami Field Hockey makes the MAC tournament final game

Head Coach Jill Reeve was brought to Miami to breathe some life into Miami's moribund Field Hockey program. In 2004, her first season at Miami, she led the RedHawks to a 7-14 season that was, sadly, a dramatic improvement over the previous year's 1-17 record.

In 2005, her team improved again, this time to 10-12, on the backs of a strong freshman class, and at the end of the season, the RedHawks found themselves in the MAC championship game. This was remarkable on two counts:

1. Miami only had a single win just two seasons earlier
2. Miami had to beat Ball State in a shootout in the quarterfinals, then needed OT to take out Ohio U. in the semifinals.

Certainly the two OT games took something out of the RedHawks as they fell to CMU in the finals, but still, Field Hockey has come a long way in a short time.

8. Football Takes Back Victory Bell, Embarrasses UC on National TV

Miami was without the Victory Bell for a year. That makes Miami grumpy -- nearly as grumpy as Paul Daugherty having to go to Oxford on a weeknight. So what did the RedHawks do in front of a national TV audience? They reclaimed the bell from the Bearcats in kick-your-mouth-in style.

Josh Betts passed for 359 yards and 3 touchdowns and Brandon Murphy romped for another 120 yards on the ground as Miami dominated the young Bearcats. In contrast, UC's Dustin Grutza threw up 5 INTs against Miami's greedy defense.

The win was Miami's biggest victory since the RedHawks drubbed UC 41-0 in 1998. Miami has now won the Victory Bell in 4 out of the last 5 games and leads the all-time series with Big East's newest cellar dwellar, 59-44-7.

7. Women's swimming and diving keeps winning and winnning and winning...

Miami's class of 2005 seniors never lost a MAC dual meet. They won four straight MAC Championships. They just won and won a lot. The scary thing? The class of 2005 was the FIFTH Miami women's swimming and diving team to never know a MAC loss.

And the beat goes on this year; Miami has already won four MAC dual meets this season. Things continue to look good for Dave Jennings and his squad.

6. Men's Basketball comes back against Buffalo

On February 5, it looked as though Miami's modest winning streak at Millett would come to an end, and Miami would be tossed back into the scrum for the MAC East title. Buffalo was in control of the game for the entire second half -- at one point enjoying a 17-point lead -- and were up by 14 points with a mere 4:45 left in regulation.

Then the RedHawks decided they wanted to play some ball.

Over the last 4:45 of regulation, Miami put together a furious 18-4 run, capped by a three-pointer by William Hatcher with only three seconds remaining that tied the game and sent it to overtime. In overtime, Miami pulled ahead for good on a William Hatcher layup with 2:56 remaining in the game, and not even the Bortzan Army could help Buffalo salvage the game.

5. Men's Basketball wins MAC regular-season title, makes first postseason trip since 1999

While this is a whole lot of moments wrapped up into one entry, it's also probably the point that's lost on some in our community. In 2005, Miami won an unprecendented 21st MAC Basketball title by posting a 12-6 conference record. With the title, they earned the #1 seed in the MAC tournament and a bye to the second round. There, they dominated BG 85-65 in the quarterfinals before dropping a close-fought game against OU in the semifinals.

Miami took a commanding 10-2 lead in the conference standings and held on down the stretch to keep their hands on the title. Although the second half of the conference season wasn't as dominating as the first, nonetheless, Miami was able to raise another banner in Millett Hall. And as gravy, Charlie Coles was named MAC Coach of the Year.

Despite losing to OU in the semifinals of the MAC tournament, the NIT awarded a home game to Miami against Texas Christian University during Spring Break.

4. Two Miamians achieve all-American status at the NCAA cross country meet.

On November 21, Miami seniors Dan Huling and Chris Swisher finished among the top 30 American runners at the NCAA Championship in Terre Haute, Ind., to earn all-American honors.

Huling and Swisher were the 13th and 28th American finishers, respectively, giving Miami its first dual all-Americans since 1980 when John Locker and Bryan Pownall accomplished the feat.

The 2005 season also marks the first time in 25 years that a Miami runner has won a conference championship and finished as an All-American in the same season. Huling is the first runner since Bryan Pownall in 1980 to win a MAC title and be named to the All-America team in the same year, and he is the fifth Miami runner in school history to accomplish the feat.

Swisher also won MAC runner of the week honors on Sept. 3 and Sept. 11, and was named MAC co-Scholar-Athlete of the week for the week of November 29. He was also named to the All-MAC Academic Cross-Country Team. Swisher has a 3.5 GPA IN Environmental Science.

3. Baseball battles back to take MAC Championship, then sets NCAA tourney records against Quinnipiac

Miami's baseball team claimed the regular season crown to earn the right to host the MAC Tournament at McKie Field at Hayden Park, then made the most of the home field to win the MAC tournament title and NCAA bid.

Miami lost to a red-hot Central Michigan team in their third game of the double-elimination tournament, but battled back from the loser's bracket to face Central twice on the last day of the tourney. Their first win over the Chippewas was to stay alive. The second win was for all the marbles. Miami won both and went to Austin, Texas for the NCAA Regionals.

At the NCAA Regionals, Miami only won one game, but it was a doozy: absent the mercy rule, the RedHawks rang up an NCAA Regional Record 35 runs on a hapless Quinnipiac University squad. All told, Miami tied or set 9 regional records and 1 all-time record against the Bobcats.

2. Softball wins MAC Tournament; plays in NCAA tourney

Not to be outdone by the Baseball team, the Softball team ripped through the MAC tournament with four straight wins to claim Miami's first ever MAC title and NCAA Bid. Senior Jackie Poggendorf earned MAC Tournament MVP honors for the second time in her career--the first coming in 2003--after winning three games and allowing two runs in 15.2 innings of work for an 0.89 tournament ERA.

The MAC Title earned Miami a trip down to Knoxville, Tenn., for the NCAA softball tournament. There, Miami was upended by regional host Tennessee, 9-0. The team then lost to Virginia Tech, 4-1, to put the season to rest.

Despite the loss, Miami's entry in the NCAAs was still significant in that it was the culmination of 7 years of hard work by Coach Angie Jacobs to take Miami from MAC doormat to title contender.

1. Hockey sweeps Michigan convincingly, moves up to #2 in the nation

Miami swept third-ranked Michigan for the first time in eight seasons at the beginning of December. The RedHawks claimed wins of 4-2 and 4-3 in front of a standing-room-only crowd that was reported to be the most electric crowds at Goggin in years. Miami scored two short-handed goals on Friday night, while Andy Greene was the hero of the Saturday contest, scoring an unassisted goal midway through the third period to take the lead for good.

Miami had been #8 going into the weekend, and were rewarded for taking care of business against the #3 Wolverines by getting a boost to the #2 ranking in both the USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine and USCHO.com polls. The #2 rating, which Miami still holds as of this writing, equals Miami's best-ever ranking.

Honorable Mentions

• The birth of the Bortzan Army
• Smoking 5 time defending MAC East Champs Kent on senior night on route to a 45-11 halftime (70-45 final) to win clinch MAC East title and finish
• DG goes an entire football season without having to ban a Marshall fan.