Teresa Murphy

Tiffany Keller

The Wittenberg volleyball team put a mid-week set-back behind them to claim victory in a pair of North Coast Athletic Conference matches held in the HPER Center on Saturday.

The first conference match of the season was a convincing victory over visiting Allegheny, 3-0. The kills were spread around among the players, with senior middle hitter Tiffany Keller (Massillon, Ohio/Tuslaw) and junior outside hitter Lindsay Nelson (Massillon, Ohio/Tuslaw) each scoring 10 kills and Monica McDonald (Newark, Ohio/Catholic) adding 11. On defense, Emilie Schmid (Canton, Ohio/Massillon Jackson) shone with 19 digs to ensure that Allegheny did'nt pull off an upset.

After Kenyon and Allegheny played five grueling games before the Ladies pulled out the win, the last match of the day was again all Wittenberg in a 3-0 defeat of Kenyon. Teresa Murphy (Blacklick, Ohio/Newark Catholic) was the star of the offensive attack with 12 kills, while Nelson added another 10. Sophomore setter Sarah Yuskewich (Columbus, Ohio/Watterson) was ever-present, contributing 38 assists.

Yuskewich leads the NCAC in assists with more than 13.3 per game, more than three better than the next setter. McDonald tops all comers in the kills department, leading the Tigers and the conference with more than 4.7 per game.

The Tigers, who were ranked eighth in the nation last week, have a mid-week NCAC match against Earlham before hosting the first of three invitational tournaments over the weekend. Joining the Tigers in the annual Wittenberg Invitational on Friday and Saturday will be Calvin, Mt. Union, Hope, Ohio Northern, Case Western Reserve, Franklin and Carnegie Mellon. Wittenberg is hosting two more high-quality invitationals on Oct. 11-12 and Nov. 1-2.