Round Up: Tigers Start Off Dominating the Competition

Jamie McIntyre

The Wittenberg women's soccer team is off to the second best start in school history, hopefully with the kind of head of steam necessary to make in-roads into the extremely competitive North Coast Athletic Conference in 2005. The Tigers, coming off an 11-4-5 breakout season in 2004, are aiming to improve upon last year's third place regular season finish despite the presence of two other nationally ranked teams and six of the top 10 teams in the latest Great Lakes Region poll.

The Tigers are winning in most impressive fashion, having outscored their first seven opponents by a whopping 10-1 margin in running up a perfect 7-0 record. The only goal allowed all season was in the first half of the opener at Illinois Wesleyan on Sept. 2. Since rallying for a 2-1 win in that game, the Tiger defense has been the closest thing to perfection there is in soccer, shutting out six straight opponent to break the school record of five set in 1995.

The 2005 Tigers are chasing that landmark team of a decade ago in a lot of ways. That team streaked out to an 11-0 start before finishing 15-3 overall and ranked No. 7 in the nation. The NCAA Division III Tournament was a much more selective affair back in those days, and the Tigers were snubbed in their hopes of obtaining an at-large selection after finishing third in the NCAC.

The Tiger defense is led again this year by junior back Jamie McIntyre (Columbus, Ohio/Grandview), who has been nothing short of sensational this year after earning NCAC Defensive Player of the Year honors in 2004. Along with fellow defensive starters sophomore Amy Meige (Columbus, Ohio/DeSales), sophomoreLindsey Rusch (Columbus, Ohio/Worthington Kilbourne) and freshman Suzanne Medwid (Columbus, Ohio/Upper Arlington), McIntyre allows very few scoring opportunities to Wittenberg's foes. When they do take a shot, most find their way into the arms of sophomore goalkeeper Meghan O'Rourke ( Columbus, Ohio/ Worthington Kilbourne).

Offensively, the Tigers have one of the best in the business in sophomore forwardLisa Rusch (Columbus, Ohio/Worthington Kilbourne), the team's leading scorer in 2004 and so far in 2005 as well. The 2004 NCAC Newcomer of the Year lost one of her primary running mates recently, however, as junior forward Liz Volz ( Cincinnati, Ohio/Seton), second on the team in scoring, went down for the year with a knee injury.

All of the details about the Tigers, are well documented in game stories found on the team's schedule/results page. Season statistics can be found by clicking here.