Wittenberg seniors (from left) Jessica Kimble, Laura Fender and Jackie Williams show off their NCAC Tournament championship trophy.
Springfield, Ohio — The No. 5 ranked Wittenberg University volleyball team has been selected to compete in the NCAA Division III Tournament for the 13th consecutive year and the 14th time in school history. The Tigers, who have been selected to host the Great Lakes Regional Tournament for the fifth time in the last six years, open their quest for the first national title in program history at 8:30 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 13, against Muskingum.
That match - and the other six that are part of the 2008 Great Lakes Regional - will take place in Pam Evans Smith Arena in Wittenberg's HPER Center. The Tigers' contest against Muskingum is the last of four first-round matches scheduled for Thursday, followed by the regional semifinals at 4:30 and 7 p.m. Friday, Nov. 10, and the championship match at 7 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 11.
The Great Lakes Regional figures to be a challenging bracket again in 2008. Wittenberg is actually the second seed in the bracket, with defending national champion Washington University looming in the other half. The tournament starts Thursday with a match between fourth-seeded Washington & Lee University and fifth-seeded College of Mount St. Joseph at 1 p.m., followed by top-seeded Washington University against eighth-seeded Frostburg State at 3:30 p.m., third-seeded Ohio Northern against sixth-seeded Westminster at 6 p.m. and Wittenberg against seventh-seeded Muskingum at 8:30 p.m.
The winner of the regional bracket will advance to the national tournament with quarterfinals, semifinals and finals set for Thursday-Saturday, Nov. 20-22, at Illinois Wesleyan University in Bloomington, Ill. Wittenberg has reached the national semifinals each of the last three years before losing to Juniata College in 2005 and 2006 and Washington University in 2007. The Tigers have bowed to the eventual national champion in two of the last three national semifinals.
Muskingum comes into the national tournament with records of 23-6 overall and 6-3 in the Ohio Athletic Conference (OAC), which put three teams in the field. Ohio Northern, ranked eighth nationally and second in the Great Lakes Region, comes in at 30-4 overall and 9-0 in the OAC after winning the conference's regular season and tournament championships. Westminster is the champion of the Presidents' Athletic Conference and sports records of 24-10 overall and 13-1 in the conference. Frostburg State won the Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference and enters the tournament with records of 29-5 and 8-1 in the conference. Washington and Lee captured regular season and tournament titles in the Old Dominion Athletic Conference and has records of 31-6 overall and 10-0 in the conference. Mount St. Joseph won the Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference and comes in with records of 28-10 overall and 7-1 in the conference.
Finally, Washington University was ranked fourth in last week's national poll but earned the University Athletic Association's automatic bid into the tournament by upsetting top-ranked Emory in the conference tournament championship match. The Bears, who have won two of the last five national titles and more NCAA Division III volleyball crowns than any other school, are 30-6 overall and 10-1 in the UAA.
Wittenberg advanced to the 2008 NCAA Division III Tournament by virtue of the NCAC's automatic berth after finishing off their second straight perfect conference regular season with a 3-0 win over Hiram in the NCAC Tournament championship match on Nov. 8. The Tigers, who compiled records of 32-2 overall and 16-0 in the NCAC, have been ranked in the top 10 nationally all season and sport a 5-2 mark against teams that earned berths in the 2008 NCAA Division III Tournament.
Wittenberg is making its 14th NCAA appearance and 13th in a row (1993-96-97-98-99-00-01-02-03-04-05-06-07-08). The Tigers have reached the NCAA Division III Tournament Round of 16 nine times in school history, the national quarterfinals five of the last six years, and the national semifinals each of the last three years. Wittenberg has a 21-13 (.618) overall record in the national tournament.
Written By: Ryan Maurer
Photo By: Barbara Perenic, Springfield News-Sun
064-08