MEADVILLE, Pa. - For the eighth straight year and the 19th time since joining the North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC) in 1989, the Wittenberg Tigers have earned a regular season volleyball championship. A sweep of host Allegheny secured at least a share of the league title before the Tigers wrapped up a perfect 3-0 weekend road trip with a win over Case Western.
The win over Allegheny was Wittenberg's 26th in a row against the Gators, dating back to 1996, and it was the Tigers' 42nd straight NCAC regular season victory. The Tigers have yet to secure hosting rights for the NCAC Tournament, however - that will be determined on Wednesday, Oct. 29, when Wittenberg hosts second-place Denison.
Wittenberg defeated Allegheny by set scores of 25-21, 25-16 and 25-12. The Tigers have lost just one set in NCAC action so far in 2013.
Seventeen different players saw action in the day's first match for Wittenberg, which improved to 18-8 overall and 7-0 in the league. As a result, the statistics were distributed throughout the line-up, with senior Andrea Behling (Columbus, Ind./North) and sophomore Katie Zito (Canton, Ohio/Massillon Jackson) leading the offense with eight kills each and junior Kiah Murray (Yorktown, Ind./Yorktown) spearheading the defense with 12 digs.
Junior Meghan Vodopich (Canton, Ohio/Massillon Perry) added four kills, six service aces, seven digs and 22 assists, and sophomore Kara Seidenstricker (London, Ohio/Jonathan Alder) rounded things out with six kills and a .545 attack percentage.
Against Case Western, the Tigers won by set scores of 25-14, 21-25, 25-17, 25-13. Wittenberg attacked at an efficient .329 clip for the match, piling up 59 kills against just 12 attack errors.
Behling and freshman Camila Quinones (Sunbury, Ohio/Worthington Christian) finished with matching stats lines of 15 kills, two errors and 31 attack attempts for .419 attack percentages. Seidenstricker added 14 kills, and she shared match honors in digs with Murray as both contributed 16 to the team total. Zito added 15 digs, and Vodopich was stellar with 50 assists.