Tori Vogelgesang
Coming off another outstanding season - the program's 27th in a row without a losing record - the Wittenberg field hockey team fields a relatively young team in 2008. The bar is set high, however, as 11 letterwinners return to the lineup after capturing the program's fourth North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC) regular season title since 2000.
To not only climb back to the top of the NCAC heap in 2008 but to reach the NCAA Division III Tournament for the first time since 2004, the Tigers must hope that the eight starters returning to the lineup this year are prepared for the next step. Helping matters is the fact that Head Coach Diana Goggins welcomes back the 2007 NCAC Offensive Player of the Year in sophomore forward Tori Casanta (Mason, Ohio/Cor Jesu Academy) and the 2007 NCAC Newcomer of the Year in sophomore forward Boo Vernon (Lake Bluff, Ill./Cushing Academy).
Casanta collected 12 goals and six assists in 2007 to rank second on the team. She will be joined on the Tiger attack by Vernon, who led Wittenberg and the NCAC with 18 goals and 21 total points a year ago. Vernon went on to garner national recognition as a third-team NCAA Division III All-American. Both Vernon and Casanta were named to an All-Freshman Team compiled by womensfieldhockey.com.
On a team that features a whopping 15 underclassmen, including eight freshmen, the Tigers will turn to senior defenders Whitney Marshall (Barre, Mass./Quabbin Regional) and Beth Vonderbrink (Cincinnati, Ohio/Mount Notre Dame) for leadership. Marshall has earned accolades both on the field and in the classroom in her first three years in the Red and White, capped by being named one of two Pam Smith Scholars for 2008-09, the first time the award has been given in honor of the late Tiger women's basketball coach. Vonderbrink has earned All-NCAC honorable mention honors in each of her first three collegiate seasons, including 2007 after she ranked among the NCAC leaders in defensive saves.
There is plenty of support for the Tigers' headliners, including sophomore midfielders Marisa Myers (Powell,Ohio/Olentangy Liberty) and Hannah Scheckelhoff (Blacklick, Ohio/Columbus School for Girls), who both made significant contributions to the top-scoring offense in the NCAC in 2007. On the defensive end, junior Tori Vogelegsang (Cincinnati, Ohio/St. Ursula) and sophomore Meredith Price (Highland Park, Ill./North Shore Country Day) are key returning defensive standouts, while sophomore goalkeeper Liana Began (Hudson, Ohio/Hudson) hopes to pick up where she left off at the end of the 2007 season. Began took over between the pipes midway through the campaign and went on to win seven of her 11 starts.
The 2008 campaign gets underway Saturday, Aug. 30, as the Tigers compete in the Black-Eyed Susan Tournament at Stevenson University, the start of a challenging non-conference schedule that includes a pair of East Coast trips. The Tigers kick off defense of their NCAC regular season title with a home game against Ohio Wesleyan on Sept. 10 at Edwards-Maurer Field.