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Messiah Photo Earns Honor, To Be Featured In ESPN
Posted: 6/7/2010
Then-junior Elizabeth Ziegler propelled Messiah's field hockey team to the 2008 Final Four in the most incredible of fashions. Nearly two years later, this photo earned a prestigious honor.

Bristol, CT — One of Messiah’s most poignant sports photos has earned a national accolade, the school announced Monday.

ESPN The Magazine awarded a recent Messiah field hockey photo first prize in The Shot Sports Photography Contest, a national competition boasting well over 2,500 entries. Cory Furman, Messiah Assistant Athletics Director for Public Relations and Marketing, took the picture.

“I’m not a photographer by any stretch of the imagination, but when I looked at the camera to see what I had captured, I knew it was pretty good,” Furman said. “You just don’t replicate that kind of emotion.”

The winning photo depicts then-junior Elizabeth Ziegler crying after scoring the game-winning goal against Rowan University in the 2008 NCAA Division III Championships Third Round, sending the Falcons to their 12th Final Four appearance in school history.

Ziegler scored the sudden-death tally with just 31.1 seconds remaining in double-overtime, concluding a game widely considered to be the best ever played at Anderson Field. Messiah won the game by a 2-1 count following Ziegler’s miracle, while the photo appeared in a lauded Furm’s Take afterward.

Then-senior Beth Sandowich was shown kissing Ziegler on her forehead, gently holding her as Ziegler bawled tears of joy.

Those emotions helped the photo win first prize in The Shot’s ‘Faces Of The Game’ category, where entries were asked to capture “the ups and downs of sports, as seen on the faces of the men and women who play them.”

ESPN on-air talents Jeremy Schaap and Kenny Mayne anchored a panel of nine judges for the contest, including ESPN The Magazine’s Siung Tjia, creative director, and Catriona Ni Aolain, director of photography. Photos were evaluated on creativity (34 percent), sense of place (33 percent) and capturing the moment (33 percent).

As a result of winning first prize, the Messiah photo will now be featured in an upcoming edition of ESPN The Magazine, as well as in an exhibition at the 2010 PDN PhotoPlus Expo in New York City. Furman also garnered a handful of prizes, including a digital camera and a $100 ESPNShop.com gift card.

ESPN named first prize winners in each of six categories, while a photo from Rey Del Rio earned grand prize honors. Complete details of the contest — including a list of awardees — can be found at the official site of ESPN The Shot.

“The prizes are nice, but I really wanted to enter this picture in hopes of getting our programs even more national exposure,” Furman said. “To have this photo appear in ESPN The Magazine, you never know who will see it and want to learn more about this place. Messiah athletics is obviously extremely special. I’m just glad I was able to snap the button at the right moment to capture a little part of that.”