Tigers Enter NCAC Tournament Seeded Second

The Tiger women's tennis team finished its best season in more than a decade by placing third in the NCAC tournament at Denison last weekend. Kenyon won its seventh straight and 15th overall NCAC championship, but the young Tigers, who expect to lose just two players off this year's team, were a big story at the event.

Wittenberg, which was seeded fifth in the tournament, scored a 5-2 win over No. 4 Allegheny in the first round, guaranteeing the Tigers of no worse than a fourth-place finish. In the semifinals, Wittenberg was defeated 5-1 by No. 1 Kenyon before recovering for a 5-0 win over No. 3 Oberlin in the third-place match. The No. 3 finish was the team's best since 1990, when the Tigers also finished third.

The Tigers had two players listed with the second-best records in their flights for the season. Junior Melanie Wight (Hombrechtilon, Switzerland/Gymnasium Weitzikon) was 13-9 (including 6-1 in the NCAC) at No. 3 singles, while freshmanDeana Nowakowski (Uniontown, Ohio/Lake) was 12-9 and 4-2 at No. 5 singles. Overall in singles action this year, Wittenberg had just one player without a winning record, and that was an 8-8 mark.

Wittenberg's No. 2 doubles team of sophomore Shannon Oliphant (Columbus, Ohio/Hilliard Davidson) and senior Sara Deskin (Youngstown, Ohio/Ursuline)was second in the NCAC with an 11-7 overall record and 5-1 in conference action. Deskin, the Tigers only senior, was also third in No. 4 singles at 14-9 and 6-2.

Wittenberg's men's team has earned the No. 2 seed in the West Division for the NCAC Tournament, which will be held Friday and Saturday at Oberlin.

The Tigers had a seven-match winning streak snapped with a 5-2 loss to defending NCAC champion Denison on April 18. The loss dropped Wittenberg into second place, one game behind Denison, in the NCAC West division. But Wittenberg rallied for a huge victory in their only outing last week as the Tigers conquered visiting Kenyon on April 24 at the Albright Tennis Center. In that match, the Tigers won a dramatic doubles point as the No. 1 team of senior Bryan Heft (Gahanna, Ohio/Lincoln) and sophomore Casey Clagett (Steamboat Springs, Colo./Steamboat Springs) rallied in a tiebreaker. Then the Tigers took four of the six singles matches in the non-league match.

Wittenberg has three singles players with the best records in their respective flights. They include Heft at No. 1 singles with a 19-4 overall record, sophomore Eric Cusick (Lima, Ohio/Senior) with a 15-5 record at No. 3 and sophomore Ben Hodgkiss-Lilly (Cleveland Heights, Ohio/Cleveland Heights) at 13-4 at No. 6 singles.

Freshman Duby Lakos (Lynchburg, Va./Heritage) is second in No. 4 singles at 12-5. All of the team's singles players have winning records.