Tigers Top Denison To Clinch First-Ever NCAC Tournament Top Seed

GRANVILLE, Ohio — It was a day of firsts for the Wittenberg women's lacrosse team. With a 14-12 win over preseason North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC) favorite Denison, the Tigers earned the No. 1 seed in the NCAC Tournament for the first time ever and reached 10 wins in a season for the first time since 1990.

Picked to finish fifth in the NCAC preseason poll, the Tigers now stand alone atop the conference's regular season standings with one game remaining. Wittenberg will host Oberlin on Saturday, April 28, in its regular season finale with records of 10-4 overall and 5-0 in the conference.

The win was Wittenberg's eighth in the last nine games since a 2-3 start, and it earned the Tigers the right to host an NCAC Tournament semifinal game for the first time ever. Wittenberg also would host the NCAC Tournament championship game — for the first time ever — if the Tigers can advance past the semifinal game, which is scheduled for Thursday, May 3.

The high-scoring Tigers were matched by Denison until the closing moments. Wittenberg led 7-6 at halftime and, after the Big Red pulled into a tie briefly, the Tigers scored three in a row. Denison answered to pull within one goal, but the apparent game-tying tally by Molly Chapman was disallowed due to a stick infraction.

The ruling seemed to give the Tigers the momentum once again as Wittenberg outscored Denison 3-2 the rest of the way.

Sophomore Alie Marousek (Pittsburgh, Pa./Portsmouth (NH)) turned in another tremendous offensive performance, contributing three goals and three assists to the attack. Sophomore Francine Murzynski (Mentor, Ohio/Lake Catholic) added three goals and two assists, while junior Kellen Morrissey (Aurora, Colo./Smoky Hill) chipped in with two goals and one assist and sophomore Nicolette Lyons (Lake Forest, Ill./Lake Forest) finished with two goals.

Morrissey and Murzynski stuffed the stats sheet as usual. In addition to their offensive numbers, Morrissey added two ground balls, two draw controls and two caused turnovers, while Murzynski contributed two ground balls, three draw controls and one caused turnover.

Junior Katie Bondy (Westerville, Ohio/South) was credited with 10 saves for the Tigers, who were narrowly outshot in the game 29-27.