Contact: Ryan Maurer
Springfield, Ohio – The third-ranked Wittenberg University volleyball team has been selected to compete in the NCAA Division III Tournament for the 17th consecutive year and the 18th time in school history. The Tigers open defense of their 2011 national championship with a first round match against Ohio Northern University at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Mich., on Thursday, Nov. 8.
The Tigers’ contest against Ohio Northern University (23-6), the third-place finisher in the Ohio Athletic Conference, is one of four first-round matches scheduled for the opening day of the regional tournament hosted by Calvin, the 2010 national champion. Winners will advance to the regional semifinals on Friday, Nov. 9, and the championship match is scheduled for Saturday, Nov. 10. All match times will be announced later today.
Wittenberg and Ohio Northern have met 51 times on the volleyball court, with the Polar Bears holding a 29-22 advantage, although the Tigers have won eight of the last 10 matches. The last time the two teams met was a 3-0 home win for Wittenberg in the first round of the 2010 NCAA Division III Tournament, which evened the postseason series between the two programs at 5-5.
Calvin is serving as the regional host for a second straight year, and the tournament bracket is even more loaded than it was in 2011 when the Tigers emerged with a 3-1 victory in the title match over the host Knights. Three of the top four teams in the latest American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) are included in the eight-team bracket, in addition to 10th-ranked University of Mount Union and 12th-ranked Otterbein University.
In addition to Wittenberg’s match against Ohio Northern, No. 4 Hope College (28-4) will play No. 12 Otterbein (26-7), No. 10 Mount Union (26-6) takes on Medaille College (16-12), and Heidelberg University (19-14) squares off with No. 2 Calvin (28-2) on the opening day.
The winner of the regional bracket will advance to the national tournament with quarterfinals, semifinals and finals set for the weekend of Nov. 15-17, at Hope College in Holland, Mich. Last year, the Tigers won their national championship on the home court of current No. 1-ranked Washington University in St. Louis, Mo.
Wittenberg advanced to the 2012 NCAA Division III Tournament by virtue of the North Coast Athletic Conference’s (NCAC) automatic berth after winning the NCAC regular season and tournament titles. The Tigers, who compiled records of 25-4 overall and 8-0 in the NCAC, have been ranked in the top five nationally all season, and Wittenberg has been particularly impressive against top competition, posting a 10-2 record against teams that earned berths in the national competition.
The Tigers enter the tournament with a head of steam, winners of 12 straight matches, culminating in an NCAC Tournament championship match victory over DePauw on their home floor on Saturday, Nov. 3. Wittenberg has won 18 NCAC regular season titles, including the last seven, and 18 NCAC Tournament titles, including the last six, in the last 21 years. The Tigers will take a 35-match NCAC regular season win streak into the 2013 campaign.
Wittenberg is making its 18th NCAA appearance and 17th in a row (1993-96-97-98-99-00-01-02-03-04-05-06-07-08-09-10-11-12). The Tigers have reached the NCAA Division III Tournament Round of 16 a total of 11 times in school history, the national quarterfinals six of the last 10 years, the national semifinals four times and the championship game for the first time a year ago. Wittenberg has a 30-16 (.652) overall record in the national tournament.
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