GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. - After a heartbreaking loss in the conference tournament final to Hiram just one week ago, it could have been easy for the Wittenberg Tigers to hang their heads. Instead, the Tigers got back to business, getting better three straight days en route to the fourth NCAA Division III Great Lakes Regional championship in the last five years, earned by wins against Brockport State, Hiram and then the host Calvin Knights, 3-0, on Saturday.
The 15th-ranked Tigers defeated the 11th-ranked Knights in the regional final for a second straight season, although in 2006 the Tigers were forced to do it the hard way. Wittenberg won 3-0 on its home floor a year ago, capping a perfect three-match run through the regional en route to the best NCAA Division III Tournament finish in school history. This year, it was Calvin that appeared to have it all together after beating the Tigers on their home court on Sept. 15 and compiling a glittering 34-1 record.
Wittenberg improved to 34-7 on the season and handed Calvin just its second loss by deceiving game scores of 30-26, 30-19, 32-30. The Tigers advanced to the national quarterfinals in Salem, Va. They will face the winner of the South Regional final between Trinity University and Emory University.
The Tigers jumped out to sizable leads in each of the first two games to take a commanding lead. However, the third and final game was much more dramatic. Calvin rallied from the early deficit this time, tying the game at 24, 27, 28, 29 and 30 points apiece before back-to-back kills by Wittenberg junior outside hitter Emily Bell (Fort Wayne, Ind./Concordia Lutheran) sealed the match for the Tigers.
Wittenberg Head Coach Paco Labrador, for one, was relieved to see his team end things when they did. In the regular season match, Wittenberg won the first game 32-30 and held several late leads in Game 2 before falling 39-37. Playing their third match of the day, the Tigers then fell apart by scores of 30-13, 30-13 to fall by a 3-1 margin.
"If we would have lost the third game, I'm not sure we would have won the match," Labrador said. "Calvin was starting to figure out our weaknesses and their crowd made it very difficult for us to run our offense. So much of our offense is based on our setter making audible calls, and when it got as loud as it did, we struggled to communicate. We were fortunate to pull a rabbit out our hats at the end and sneak out with the Game 3 win."
Bell led the balanced Tiger offense with 12 kills, followed by 10 kills from sophomore outside hitter Jackie Williams (Rocky River, Ohio/Magnificat). The key to the match may well have been the play of the Tigers' two primary middle hitters as junior Caitlin Augustus (Springfield, Ohio/Shawnee) finished with seven kills and an attack percentage of .462 to go along with three blocks and sophomoreJessica Kimble (Dennison, Ohio/Claymont) eight kills and six block assists. As a team, Wittenberg held a whopping 11-5 edge in blocks.
Defensively, four players reached double figures in digs, led by senior outside hitter Jan Kehres (Alliance, Ohio/Alliance) with 15. Junior setter Sarah Matesich (Granville, Ohio/Newark Catholic) led in assists with 21 as she continued to play through an injury.