Eileen Quinn

The Wittenberg women's soccer team was overdue for a stumble, and it finally came last week. The youthful Tigers had been wracked by injuries to key players and had won six games by razor-thin 1-0 margins before finally losing 4-1 at home to Kenyon in a key North Coast Athletic Conference match-up on Wednesday.

The defeat dropped the Tigers to 9-2-4 overall and 3-2 in the NCAC, which is as strong as ever this year. With three games remaining on the schedule, it is imperative that Wittenberg capture wins in at least two of them to assure themselves the opportunity to compete in the NCAC Tournament for the first time in three years.

Against nationally ranked Ohio Wesleyan on Oct. 9, the Tigers dropped a heartbreaking 1-0 double-overtime decision, breaking a season-opening 11-game unbeaten string. The Tigers rebounded with a 1-0 home win over Earlham on Tuesday and another 1-0 home victory on Friday, this time over Urbana in nonconference action. Then came the loss to Kenyon, putting added importance on the Saturday afternoon home game against Hiram, also at home.

The defensive-minded Tigers have outscored opponents 20-11 and have recorded an NCAC-best eight shutouts in 15 games in 2004. The goaltending tandem of freshman Meghan O'Rourke (Columbus, Ohio/Worthington Kilbourne) and seniorEileen Quinn (Glenview, Ill./Glenbrook South) have a combined goals against average of 0.68 and a saves percentage of .831. Quinn started the two 1-0 wins last week after O'Rourke was injured in the loss to Ohio Wesleyan and was credited with both shutouts.

Offensively, freshman Lisa Rusch (Columbus, Ohio/Worthington Kilbourne) is the team's leading scorer with 14 total points, followed by freshman Amanda Farrell (Loveland, Ohio/Loveland) with nine points.