DELAWARE, Ohio - An important North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC) field hockey game between two teams with title aspirations went the way of the home team Saturday as host Ohio Wesleyan defeated Wittenberg 4-3 in overtime.
The loss dropped the Tigers to 6-5 overall and 3-3 in the NCAC, while OWU picked up its second win over Wittenberg this season to improve to 7-4 overall and 4-3 in the conference. The top four teams in the final NCAC standings advance to the conference tournament, and the Tigers and Bishops are among a cluster of teams in contention for the postseason.
Wittenberg got off to a good start with a goal by freshman Boo Vernon (Lake Bluff, Ill./Cushing Academy) less than six minutes into the game, but Ohio Wesleyan started a game-long trend by answering with a goal at the 17:50 mark of the first half. The Tigers took a 2-1 lead into the halftime locker room on Vernon's second goal, which was assisted by senior midfielder Alison Voigt (Louisville, Ky./DuPont Manual).
After OWU evened the score 17 minutes into the second half, senior forward Caroline Mason (New Canaan, Conn./New Canaan) gave the Tigers the lead again off a feed from Vernon. From that point, however, it was all OWU as the Bishops scored with just 1:55 left in the game and then won it with a sudden-death overtime tally with just five seconds left on the clock.
For the game, Wittenberg outshot the host team 2013, including a whopping 8-2 margin in the overtime session. The Tigers had a 6-3 edge in penalty corner opportunities, but the Ohio Wesleyan goaltender finished with nine saves and two Bishops field players recorded defensive saves.