SPRINGFIELD, Ohio - The Wittenberg Tigers sent their two seniors - defensive backs Tori Vogelgesang (Cincinnati, Ohio/St. Ursula) and Bonnie Kenney (Lutherville, Md./Park School) - out on a high note with an emphatic 6-0 victory over visiting Oberlin.
The Senior Recognition Day win moved the Tigers to 12-4 overall and 10-2 in the North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC), good for a first-place tie with Wooster. The Tigers, ranked No. 1 in the Great Lakes Region in the most recent poll released by the NCAA, will open the NCAC Tournament with a semifinal home game against Ohio Wesleyan at 2 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 4, but Wooster won the tiebreaker and has home field advantage for the championship game, should both teams advance to that game on Saturday, Nov. 8.
The 2009 NCAC regular season title is the Tigers' second in four years under the direction of Head Coach Diana Goggins, who now has 56 wins at Wittenberg, two away from second place on the university's all-time coaching list. It was the Tigers' ninth NCAC regular season title in 21 seasons in the conference, the most in NCAC history and one more than Ohio Wesleyan and Wooster, which has now shared three of the last seven titles with Wittenberg.
The win over Oberlin, which finished the 2009 season 1-13 overall and 1-11 in the NCAC and with just 10 available players, was a foregone conclusion almost from the outset. The Tigers scored all six goals in the first half while shuttling most of the players on the roster in and out of the game liberally throughout the 70 minutes.
For the game, Wittenberg held a commanding 34-6 advantage in total shots and a 9-6 edge in penalty corner opportunities. Oberlin goalkeeper Emily Bigelow played a fine game, coming up with eight saves in each half, including several of the diving, goal-saving variety. Wittenberg sophomore goalkeeper Jenny Schaafsma (East Grand Rapids, Mich./East Grand Rapids) was forced into three saves, and she was aided by three defensive saves by her teammates - one by junior Kelley Herde (Louisville, Ky./Assumption) and two on the same sequence by freshmanSarah Wallschlager (Dublin, Ohio/Dublin Jerome).
Offensively, junior Tori Casanta (Mason, Ohio/Cor Jesu) pulled off a hat trick, giving her 15 goals on the season and 52 in her Wittenberg career, good for third place on the program's career scoring list. Junior Boo Vernon (Lake Bluff, Ill/Cushing Academy) hammered home the Tigers' first goal of the game just 5:12 in, while junior Hannah Scheckelhoff (New Albany, Ohio/Columbus School for Girls) had Wittenberg's third goal and sophomore Elizabeth Dwyer (St. Louis, Mo./LaDue) tallied the fourth score. Vernon added an assist, while freshman Kellen Morrissey (Aurora, Co./Smoky Hill) contributed a pair of assists.
Vernon, Dwyer and Casanta all now have 34 points or more and 14 goals or more on the season, putting them among both the NCAC and NCAA Division III leaders in several offensive categories. Vernon now has 54 career goals, good for second in school history, 23 behind Amy Kraus, who compiled 77 goals between 1994 and 1997.