Springfield, Ohio – After leading the Wittenberg University women’s lacrosse team to a school record-tying 12 wins and the Tigers’ second straight undefeated North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC) regular season, junior midfielder Francine Murzynski (Mentor, Ohio/Lake Catholic), senior defender Katie Warner (Delaware, Ohio/Olentangy) and senior goalkeeper Katie Bondy (Westerville, Ohio/South) have earned Intercollegiate Women’s Lacrosse Coaches Association (IWLCA) All-Great Lakes Region honors.
Murzynski and Warner earned first-team all-region, while Bondy was selected to the second team. It was the first all-region award for Warner and Bondy, while Murzynski moved up from the second-team award she garnered in 2012. All three players are now under consideration for 2013 All-America honors.
All three student-athletes have played key roles in Wittenberg’s success the last two years as the Tigers have compiled record of 24-9 overall and 14-0 in the NCAC. Murzynski ranked second on the team in goals with 39 and total points with 63, while leading the Tigers by a wide margin in assists with 24. A year after smashing the school record for draw controls in a season, Murzynski topped the team again in that category with 62, the second-best total in program history, and she also led Wittenberg with 29 caused turnovers.
Warner started all 16 games in 2013 and served as the linchpin of the Tiger defense. While contributing three goals to Wittenberg’s attack, Warner topped the team with 64 ground balls and equaled Murzynski’s team-leading 29 caused turnovers.
Bondy started 15 games in goal, posting the second-best saves percentage in the NCAC at .491 while making 130 saves out of 350 shots faced. Bondy’s goals against average was a respectable 9.55 in nearly 850 minutes of game action, and her 8.67 saves per game ranked second in the conference.
The Tigers finished the 2013 season with records of 12-4 overall and 8-0 in the NCAC, good for first place in the regular season standings and the No. 1 seed in the conference tournament. Wittenberg saw its season end in the NCAC Tournament semifinals following a heartbreaking double-overtime 14-13 loss to Wooster.