ST. LOUIS, Mo. - A year ago, the Wittenberg Tigers captured first place in an early season tournament hosted by preseason No. 1 ranked Washington University. That was then, as the Tigers featured four eventual All-Americans in their starting lineup, and this is now. The results are quite similar, despite a second-place finish for the Tigers in 2005.

Featuring a new-look lineup, Wittenberg finished second in the Washington University National Invitational with a 3-1 record after polishing off Great Lakes Region rival Mount St. Joseph, 3-1, in the Tigers' final match of the competition. Along with a 3-1 win over Ohio Northern on Friday, the Tigers served notice that a third regional title in the last four years is certainly within the realm of possibility in 2005.

The game scores were 27-30, 30-22, 30-27, 30-26. The Tigers received outstanding contributions from a wide variety of players, and they even witnessed the emergence of freshman outside hitter Jackie Williams. After recording 10 kills against Washington University, Williams was a leader on Saturday with 16 kills and seven blocks against the ninth-ranked Mountie Lions.

In addition, sophomore outside hitter Jan Kehres finished with 15 kills and three aces, sophomore middle hitter Caitlin Augustus chipped in with 10 kills and sophomore outside hitter Emily Bell was solid with six aces. Defensively, Bell finished with 23 digs and freshman libero Laura Fender added a team-best 25 digs.