Wittenberg Hosts Second Invitational Volleyball Tournament of 2004 Season
The Wittenberg University volleyball team hosts its annual Wittenberg Invitational II this weekend, featuring the usual array of high-quality competition. Seven teams will compete over a two-day span, beginning at 2 p.m. Friday, Sept. 24, and concluding with a match between Baldwin-Wallace and the host Tigers at 3:30 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 25. The teams will compete on two courts in Wittenberg's HPER Center.
SPRINGFIELD, Ohio - The Wittenberg University volleyball team hosts its annual Wittenberg Invitational II this weekend, featuring the usual array of high-quality competition. Seven teams will compete over a two-day span, beginning at 2 p.m. Friday, Sept. 24, and concluding with a match between Baldwin-Wallace and the host Tigers at 3:30 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 25. The teams will compete on two courts in Wittenberg's HPER Center.
Along with Wittenberg, the competition includes Calvin, Defiance, Case Western Reserve, Ohio Northern, Baldwin-Wallace and Allegheny. The Tigers, ranked second in the nation in the latest American Volleyball Coaches Association poll, head into the weekend with a 10-1 overall record, including a perfect 1-0 mark in the North Coast Athletic Conference after Wednesday's opener against Kenyon. Wittenberg, which has won seven straight NCAC regular season and tournament championships and has made eight straight appearances in the NCAA Division III Tournament, is the preseason favorite in the 2004 conference race. The Tigers' only loss this season came last Saturday at Washington University, the defending national champion.
Ohio Northern, the 2003 NCAA Division III Great Lakes Regional champion by virtue of a thrilling five-game win over Wittenberg last November, is 10-2 and ranked No. 7 in the nation currently. Calvin is perennially one of the top teams in the Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association and comes in with a 10-2 record after a Wednesday night loss to 2003 MIAA champion Alma. Allegheny is 4-7 overall and 0-1 in the NCAC, but three of the Gators' losses have come against teams ranked in the top-25 nationally. Defiance is 7-3 so far in 2004, a year after one of the best seasons in school history in which the Yellow Jackets went 26-5 overall. Baldwin-Wallace is 10-2 overall this season and has won six straight matches, including a key confrontation against Ohio Athletic Conference rival Capital on Wednesday. Case Western, the last team to defeat Wittenberg in NCAC action nearly eight years ago, carries a 7-7 record into this weekend's competition and is currently riding a four-match win streak.
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