Cull Lifts Tigers Past Earlham In NCAC Opener

Junior midfielder Kayla Cull beat her defender and fired in an unassisted goal in the 65th minute to break a 2-2 tie and lift the Wittenberg field hockey team to a 3-2 victory over Earlham in the NCAC opener for both squads on Wednesday night at Edwards-Maurer Field.

Earlham

1-2, 0-2

Wittenberg

1-1, 2-0

Final

Earlham (1-2, 0-2)

Wittenberg (1-1, 2-0)

Junior Kayla Cull celebrates her game-winning goal in the Tigers' 3-2 win over Earlham - (Photo Courtesy of Trent Sprague '22)

Scoring Summary

1st - 32:55 - Isabelle Bishop (Earlham)

2nd - 42:16 - Blaine Donnelly (Wittenberg)

2nd - 45:18 - Isabelle Bishop (Earlham)

2nd - 57:40 - Flora Van den borne (Wittenberg)

2nd - 64:37 - Kayla Cull (Wittenberg)

Game Leaders

Earlham

G: Isabelle Bishop - 2

A: N/A

Sh: 2 Players (#12, #14) - 4

Sv: Meg Murphy - 1

Wittenberg

G: 3 Players (#11, #13, #26) - 1

A: 2 Players (#5, #31) - 1

Sh: 2 Players (#5, #13) - 3

Sv: Allie Purvis - 7

Team Stats

Earlham

Wittenberg

Shots (on goal)

15 (10)

11 (4)

Saves

Fouls

Penalty Corners

Full stats

September 5, 2018

Springfield, Ohio – Junior midfielder Kayla Cull beat her defender and fired in an unassisted goal in the 65^th minute to break a 2-2 tie and lift the Wittenberg field hockey team to a 3-2 victory over Earlham in the NCAC opener for both squads on Wednesday night at Edwards-Maurer Field. The Tigers are now 1-1 in the young season.

How the Tigers Scored

With Earlham holding a 1-0 lead at intermission off a goal from Isabelle Bishop in the 33^rd minute, the Tigers evened the score up at 1-1 just seven minutes into the second period off a penalty corner opportunity. Senior forward Blaine Donnelly netted the equalizing goal off a double assist from sophomore Megan Niswonger and senior Isabella Wagner.

The Quakers quickly responded and went ahead, 2-1, just three minutes later on another tally from Bishop, but the Tigers once again responded with another unassisted goal in the 58^th minute, this time off the stick of freshman Flora van den Borne, to even the score at 2-2 and lead to Cull's eventual game-winning tally in the final minutes of the match.

By the Numbers

The Tigers picked up the key early season league win despite being outshot by the Quakers by a 15-11 margin. Wittenberg did hold a 6-5 edge in penalty corner opportunities, while senior goalie Allie Purvis made seven saves in goal compared to just one for Earlham netminder Margaret Murphy.

From The Bench

"Earlham is an up and coming program, knew they were going to come out and give us a great game. Proud of our team for making adjustments and rallying. We are focused on daily growth, fundamentals, and accountability. Today we showed determination as well. Great to get the first win of the season and see first collegiate goals for Flo and Kayla," said head coach Kelley Hubbell.

UP NEXT

Wittenberg returns to action this weekend with a pair of non-conference games in Memphis, Tennessee. The Tigers open the trip with a 2:00 p.m. (EST) contest at Rhodes on Saturday, before squaring off against Sewanee at 1:00 p.m. (EST) on Sunday in a neutral site game at Rhodes.