HAYWARD, Calif. - The Wittenberg Tigers made the cross-country trip to California, just a few hours drive north of where their 2004 season ended in the NCAA Division III Tournament, and they started off the Pioneer Wild West Tournament at California State-East Bay with a 3-0 victory over Coe College (Iowa).

The Tigers, ranked seventh in the nation, improved to 19-4 overall heading into a showdown with the nationally ranked host team on Friday evening.

The story of this match was sophomore outside hitter Jan Kehres, who was on fire offensively. Kehres, who made six hitting errors in a loss a week ago at Hiram that ended an eight-year winning streak against North Coast Athletic Conference foes, pounded 16 kills in 24 attempts against Coe. In the process, she did not make an error, creating an attack percentage of .667. No school records are kept for attack percentage in a match.

Senior outside hitter Linda Young added 10 kills and sophomore outside hitter Emily Bell chipped in with nine. Young also had two aces. Defensively, the Tigers were paced by senior middle hitter Emily Dixon with five blocks and freshman libero Laura Fender with 15 digs.