Tigers Move To 4-0 In NCAC For First Time With 21-6 Win Over Allegheny

SPRINGFIELD, Ohio — Wittenberg women's lacrosse reached a significant milestone with a 21-6 win over Allegheny Saturday afternoon at Edwards-Maurer Field, moving to 4-0 in the North Coast Athletic Conference and 9-4 overall.

The Tigers are perfect through four NCAC games for the first time since joining the conference for the 1990 season, and have also secured their first four-win conference season since going 5-2 in 2003.

The victory is also just the Tigers' second over the Gators since 2005, and the 15-goal differential is the largest since the first meeting between the schools, a 23-4 win on April 30, 1988.

The Tigers have not cleared the last hurdle, however, as their 4-0 record matches that of the 16-time champion Denison Big Red. The table is set for a matchup of goliath proportions in Granville, Ohio, at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, April 25.

The milestone win came after a pregame celebration of the team's four seniors,Lindsey Hanners (New Albany, Ohio/Columbus School For Girls), Jennifer Close (Lake Forest, Ill./Lake Forest), Krissy Battles (Kingwood, Texas/Kingwood) and Katie Frey (Chagrin Falls, Ohio/Kenston), and each of them celebrated the day with at least one goal.

The result was nearly never in doubt after the Tigers took the lead just 1:34 into the game on a goal by sophomore Alie Marousek (Pittsburgh, Pa./Portsmouth (NH))off an assist by junior Kellen Morrissey (Aurora, Colo./Smoky Hill). Wittenberg took a 10-4 lead into halftime and never looked back.

Morrissey finished the game with a hat trick in the assist column and one goal, but the offense's runaway leader was sophomore Francine Murzynski (Mentor, Ohio/Lake Catholic), who scored five goals on six shots and also paced the roster with five ground balls.

Marousek led the team with four draw controls and totaled four points on her two goals and two assists, while junior Katie Bondy (Westerville, Ohio/South) put up a wall in front of the net, making 15 saves throughout the game against just six goals allowed.

Four Tigers scored a pair of goals in the game, including Marousek, Close, juniorErin Guiliano (Loveland, Ohio/Kings) and sophomore Nicolette Lyons (Lake Forest, Ill./Lake Forest).

Other goal scorers included Hanners, Frey, Battles, Morrissey, freshman Beth Hubbard (West Hartford, Conn./Notre Dame de Sion (Mo.)), sophomore Caroline Eldridge (Amelia, Ohio/McNicholas), freshman Logan Warye (Maineville, Ohio/Kings) and freshman Kim Loofbourrow (Prospect, Ky./Ballard).

As a team, Wittenberg won the ground war with 31 ground balls to Allegheny's 24, while the teams matched each other with 14 draw controls each.

John Strawn '07