Wittenberg Captures 13th NCAC Tournament Title In The Last 16 Years

SPRINGFIELD, Ohio - The Wittenberg Tigers maintained their stranglehold on the North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC) with a 3-0 win over Hiram in newly renamed Pam Evans Smith Arena in the HPER Center.

With the win, the Tigers, the No. 1 seed in the tournament and the No. 1 ranked team in the nation, improved to 34-0 overall after posting a 14-0 record in the NCAC regular season. Wittenberg, the only team in all of college volleyball with an unbeaten record, earned its 13th NCAC Tournament title in the last 16 years - and 10th in the last 11 - to also garner the conference's automatic berth in the NCAA Division III Tournament.

The national championship starts Thursday, Nov. 8 with action at eight regional sites. The Tigers have won four of the last five Great Lakes Regional titles and enter postseason play ranked No. 1 in the region again in 2007. Wittenberg has lost in the national semifinals each of the last two years to Juniata College, which is ranked No. 2 this year after capturing the national championship in 2006.

The difference in the match was the Tigers' powerful, diversified offense, which registered attack percentages above .300 in each of the first two games and an overall attack percentage of .235 for the match. Hiram managed just an attack percentage of .023, including a negative percentage in the third game.

The top Tiger in terms of total kills was senior outside hitter Emily Bell (Fort Wayne, Ind./Concordia Lutheran), who led all players with 12. But the player who made the greatest impact on the Wittenberg offense was senior outside hitterLindsey Penrod (Piqua, Ohio/Piqua), who knocked 10 attacks to the floor on just 20 attempts. Mix in a lone attack error and Penrod registered a sizzling .450 attack percentage, a performance that earned her NCAC Tournament Most Valuable Player honors.

Junior outside hitter Jackie Williams (Rocky River, Ohio/Magnificat) added eight kills and a .368 attack percentage to also pick up all-tournament team honors. Defensively, the Tigers were paced by senior outside hitter Jan Kehres (Alliance, Ohio/Alliance) with 21 digs and junior middle hitter Jessica Kimble (Dennison, Ohio/Claymont) with five blocks. Junior libero Laura Fender (Toledo, Ohio/St. Ursula) added 16 digs to pick up a spot on the all-tournament team, while Bell chipped in with 17 digs and three blocks.

Three Hiram players finished with six kills - Kim Sage, Megan Taylor and Megan Mulligan. Defensively, Hiram finished five team blocks but were only able to dig out 49 of Wittenberg's 119 attack attempts. Libero Wendy Birchfield paced the 19th-ranked Terriers, who are now 27-5 on the season, with 14 digs in the match.

The NCAA Division III Tournament field will be announced on Monday morning.