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Lindsay Nelson

The Wittenberg volleyball team, ranked No. 5 in the nation in the American Volleyball Coaches Association poll, is at it again. For the seventh straight year, the Tigers have run the table in the North Coast Athletic Conference, encountering little resistance en route to a perfect 8-0 regular season record.

Last weekend, the finishing touches to another masterpiece were applied in an NCAC tri-match at Denison, where Wittenberg easily defeated Hiram and the host Big Red by 3-0 scores. The Tigers secured the No. 1 seed in the NCAC Tournament, which opens Nov. 4 with quarterfinal games. A win over eighth-place Ohio Wesleyan in that match will earn the Tigers the right to host the NCAC Tournament semifinals and finals on Nov. 7 and 8.

In the win over Hiram, which is having the best season in school history and recently topped 20 wins for the season, junior setter Sarah Yuskewich (Columbus, Ohio/Watterson) finished with 39 assists, seven digs and six block assists, while sophomore Emily Dixon (Granville, Ohio/Granville) added seven kills and seven block assists. Senior Lindsay Nelson (Massillon, Ohio/Tuslaw) led the offensive attack with 15 kills in 27 attempts.

Against Denison, the NCAC regular season and tournament runner-up each of the last three years, Wittenberg got 36 assists and 12 digs from Yuskewich, seven kills and 20 digs from senior Michelle Emming (West Chester, Ohio/Mt. Notre Dame)and nine kills in 17 attempts from freshman Heather Kelly (Marion, Ohio/River Valley).

For the season, Yuskewich leads the NCAC and ranks fifth in the nation in assists per game at 12.86. A year after setting a Wittenberg, NCAC and NCAA Division III record with 2,125 assists in the 2002 season, Yuskewich now has 985 assists in 2003.

Junior Emilie Schmid (Canton, Ohio/Massillon Jackson) ranks first in the NCAC and third in the nation in digs per game with 7.49. Her season total of 629 is already the fourth-highest in school history. Not coincidentally, Wittenberg ranks fifth as a team in the nation in assists per game (14.20) and 10th in digs per game (23.87).

Next up for the Tigers is an important road trip to Trinity in San Antonio, Texas. Five of the six teams, including the host school, are ranked in the top 25, including Mt. St. Joseph, which is vying for the top spot in the region with Wittenberg.