SPRINGFIELD, Ohio — The Wittenberg field hockey team earned a trip to the North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC) Tournament finals with a double overtime, 3-2 win against visiting Denison in the semifinals on Wednesday afternoon at Edwards-Maurer Field.
The winning goal came with 5:24 remaining in the second overtime after two regulation halves and the first overtime failed to determine a winner. Senior forward Boo Vernon (Lake Bluff, Ill./Cushing Academy) found the cage on her own rebound to end the game, the third time a Tiger found the cage in overtime, but the first time it counted.
Earlier in the overtime periods, the Tigers had two apparent goals waved off by the officials.
Each team picked up a goal in each regulation period, beginning with a record-breaking score for Vernon 11:52 into the game. It was her 24th goal of the season, but more importantly the 78th of her career, a total which sets a new standard for career scoring at Wittenberg.
She broke a tie with Tiger legend Amy Kraus, who played from 1994 to 1997. Junior forward Elizabeth Dwyer (St. Louis, Mo./Ladue) found Vernon square in front of the net shortly following a penalty corner to earn an assist on the goal.
Denison evened things up in the 27th minute when Catie Merrick pushed in a loose ball in front of the cage. The Big Red later took a 2-1 lead in the 47th minute when Alex Berman raced all the way from midfield to score on a low-angle shot.
Wittenberg knotted the score at 2-2 just five minutes later when senior defender Meredith Price (Highland Park, Ill./North Shore Country Day) rocketed a shot towards the cage and senior forward Tori Casanta (Mason, Ohio/Cor Jesu Academy) redirected it just past the Denison goalkeeper.
The win extends the Tigers' season sweep of the Big Red, which included a 4-1 victory in Springfield on Wednesday, Sept. 22 and a 1-0 win in Granville on Friday, Oct. 15..
At the College of Wooster, the second-seeded Fighting Scots held off three-seed Kenyon to advance to the NCAC Finals, to be held at Wittenberg at 5 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 6, with the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA Division III tournament on the line.
The Tigers improved to 15-3 overall on the season with the win, while Denison fell to 8-11. Wittenberg shot 34 times throughout the match, including 15 in the first overtime.
Through the two overtimes, both Denison netminder Brittany Benson and Wittenberg sophomore Jenny Schaafsma (Grand Rapids, Mich./East Grand Rapids) kept their teams alive. Schaafsma stopped four shots in overtime for an impressive 13 total, while Benson faced a flurry of 10 shots in the first overtime and three more in the second to finish the game with 19.
Price and freshman Arlette Kuik (Leiden, The Netherlands/Vlietland) both helped out in front of the cage with defensive saves.