Tigers Lose in NCAA Tournament's First Round

Rebecca Russ
Rebecca Russ
Emily Duh
Emily Duh

Field Hockey (17-4, 10-2 NCAC) Coach: Marianne Beshara (third season) The high-scoring Tiger field hockey team, champion of the 2002 North Coast Athletic Conference regular season and tournament titles, was defeated 3-0 by Williams College in the first round of the NCAA Division III tournament Friday afternoon at Messiah College in Grantham, Pa.

Williams was champion of the Northeast Athletic Conference and the 14th ranked team in the country coming into the tournament. Wittenberg, ranked 13th by the American Field Hockey Coaches Association, finishes its season at 17-4 overall.

Wittenberg was outshot 16-3 overall and the Ephs attempted eight penalty corners to the Tigers' two. Tiger sophomore goalkeeper Jen Meyer (Solon, Ohio/Hathaway Brown) managed to turn away seven Williams shots.

The season may be over, but two Tiger field hockey standouts do have one more game to play. Senior forward Emily Duh (Hellertown, Pa./Saucon Valley) and senior sweeper Rebecca Russ (Louisville, Ky./Sacred Heart) have been selected to participate in the National Field Hockey Coaches Association Division III North/South Senior All-Star game, a prestigious annual event to be held at 5:30 p.m., Saturday, Nov. 23, on the campus of Springfield College in Springfield, Mass.

Duh put together one of the finest seasons in school history in 2002, scoring a school-record 60 total points on a school-record-tying 26 goals and eight assists. Russ will go down in the Wittenberg annals as one of the finest defensive player ever to don a Tiger uniform. She recorded 20 career defensive saves, tops in school history, and she also scored two goals and six assists in her career on 40 shots.