OBERLIN, Ohio - The Wittenberg Tigers have made a living this season by winning the close games, so it should have come as no surprise that they would clinch second place in the North Coast Athletic Conference with a nailbiting 3-2 victory over Oberlin.
The Tigers improved to 11-5 overall and 9-2 in the NCAC heading into an eight-day layoff. Wittenberg, which is now 5-0 in overtime games, wraps up the 2006 regular season at home against Wooster, the top-ranked team in the region, on Saturday, Oct. 28. The Scots have not lost in NCAC action this season, and they topped Wittenberg on their home turf by a surprising 5-0 count earlier this year.
Until that time, the Tigers will have another clutch performance to savor. For the third time this year, senior Katy Barrett (Powell, Ohio/Watterson) banged home an overtime game-winning goal, this time off a penalty corner play with less than a minute to play in overtime. It was the second time in the game that Wittenberg had converted on a penalty corner - senior Holly McHugh (Randolph, NJ/Randolph) scored in that manner midway through the first half to put the Tigers ahead 1-0. Senior Rachel Dunn (Pittsburgh, Pa./North Allegheny) had assists on both successful penalty corner plays.
After Wittenberg took a 2-0 lead just minutes into the second half on a goal by Barrett off an assist from junior Caroline Mason (New Canaan, Conn./New Canaan), Oberlin evened the score with a pair of second-half goals. Wittenberg controlled the majority of the game's action, compiling a whopping 33 shots - compared to 17 for Oberlin - and Wittenberg held a 12-5 advantage in penalty corner opportunities.