Wittenberg Defeats Mount St. Joseph To Win NCAA Regional Title
It wasn't dominating, but it was thorough. The Wittenberg University Tigers won the NCAA Division III Great Lakes Regional title Saturday with a 3-0 win over the College of Mount St. Joseph in a match played at Ohio Northern University.
ADA, Ohio - It wasn't dominating, but it was thorough. The Wittenberg University Tigers won the NCAA Division III Great Lakes Regional title Saturday with a 3-0 win over the College of Mount St. Joseph in a match played at Ohio Northern University.
The win earned the Tigers their second regional title in the last three years and just the second crown in school history. It was Wittenberg's school-record 35th win, and it improved the Tigers to 35-2 overall on the 2004 season. The Mountie Lions, champions of the Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference regular season and tournament championships, concluded its season with a 35-4 record. Mount St. Joseph, seeded third in the region and ranked eighth nationally, had advanced to the regional final with wins over Notre Dame (Md.) on Thursday and Ohio Northern in five games on Friday.
The Tigers, champions of the North Coast Athletic Conference regular season and tournament for an eighth straight year, advanced with a Friday night win over Alma College. Wittenberg was the top seed in the region and is ranked second in the nation, behind only perennial powerhouse Juniata, a team the Tigers have defeated twice in 2004. The win advances Wittenberg to a national quarterfinal match-up against either LaVerne (Calif.) or California State-Hayward at 7 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 20. The site is to be determined on a conference call Sunday evening.
"I'm really proud of this team, being able to go on the road and beating two outstanding, national championship caliber teams," said Tigers second-year Head Coach Paco Labrador.
Games 1 and 2 were tremendous back-and-forth affairs full of tremendous momentum swings. Down 8-3 in the early going, Wittenberg put together an eight-point run to take the lead. Ahead 20-18, the Tigers appeared to seize control with five straight points, but Mount St. Joseph rallied from 27-19 down with six straight points of its own. The match see-sawed back and forth until seniors Monica McDonald and Kristin Fox pounded consecutive kills to garner a 38-36 win.
Game 2 went in a similar fashion, except for at the end of the game. Down 11-9, the Tigers went on a seven-point run to take control. McDonald had the last kill before Mt. St. Joseph wrapped things up with a hitting error on game point to give the Tigers a 30-28 decision. Game 3 was all Wittenberg as the Tigers put together several big runs to demoralize the Mountie Lions and gain a 30-23 win. Freshman Emily Bell put the exclamation point on things with a crushing kill on match point.
"Emilie Schmid was terrific for us defensively, and Sarah Yuskewich keeps running such an efficient offense," Labrador said. "I can't say enough about Tammi Toney's ability to generate offense for Mount St. Joseph and the tenacious team defense that the Lions played.
"We're looking forward to a great week of practice in order to keep our run in this tournament going."
Fox finished with 15 kills, McDonald 13, Bell 12 and junior middle hitter Emily Dixon with 10 as Yuskewich was expert in spreading things around with 47 assists. Yuskewich added eight kills of her own, to go along with four blocks and 12 digs. Schmid chipped in with 25 digs, leading four players in double figures in that category. For Mt. St. Joseph, Toney finished with 20 kills in 51 attempts after crushing 30 kills in the win over Ohio Northern the previous night.