SPRINGFIELD, Ohio - The Wittenberg Tigers were pushed to overtime before pulling out a much-needed North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC) victory over Oberlin, 3-2.
The win was Wittenberg's first in four tries at home so far in 2012, and it improved the Tigers to 2-6 overall. More importantly, Wittenberg is now 2-3 in the NCAC, heading into a pair of crucial road games at Denison and Ohio Wesleyan over the next 10 days.
Oberlin fell to 2-3 overall and 1-3 in the NCAC with the loss.
Wittenberg took the lead three times in the game, but Oberlin had an answer the first two times. Sophomore Beth Warning (Cincinnati, Ohio/Mount Notre Dame) opened the scoring with a goal in the 20th minute off a feed from freshman Karen Blacklock (Clark, NJ/Arthur L. Johnson). But the Yeowomen tied the game with less than five minutes left before intermission.
Just over three minutes into the second half, the Tigers jumped back in front as senior Kellen Morrissey (Aurora, Colo./Smoky Hill) took a shot from long range that deflected off Oberlin goalkeeper Kiran Puri and into the back of the cage. Once again, the Yeowomen rallied, scoring at the 60-minute mark to tie the game and send it into sudden-death overtime.
Morrissey ended the game 4:28 into the extra frame. Blacklock took a short-range shot that was blocked by Puri, but right to Morrissey on the back post, where she knocked the ball into the cage.
Wittenberg held a commanding 25-6 advantage in shots, in addition to an 18-3 lead in penalty corner opportunities. Puri came up big for the Yeowomen with 17 saves, including four in overtime, while Tiger netminder Jessica Jensen (Hartland, Wisc./Arrowhead) was credited with two saves in the game.