Tigers Conclude Regular Season With Perfect Fall Classic

Hallie Donathan

SPRINGFIELD, Ohio — The Wittenberg volleyball team closed out a perfect 3-0 weekend in their own Fall Classic with a pair of victories Saturday with 3-0 wins over Mount St. Joseph and Carnegie Mellon. The Tigers completed their regular season with a sparkling overall record of 28-2.

While technically not a tournament, the Tigers took home the weekend title with wins over the other competing teams following a 3-1 win over Juniata on Friday. Juniata picked up wins over Carnegie Mellon and Mount St. Joseph in the day's other matches.

With the completion of the Classic also came the announcement of the field for next weekend's North Coast Athletic Conference tournament. One-seed Wittenberg will host the event and open the competition against fourth-seeded Denison at 5:30 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 5. Two-seed and NCAC co-champion Hiram will take on third-seeded Wooster at 7 p.m. in the other semifinal.

The semifinal winners square off at 2 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 6, for the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA Division III tournament.

On the final day of action at the Fall Classic, Wittenberg swept their way past both Mount St. Joseph (25-12, 25-17, 26-24) and Carnegie Mellon (25-8, 25-22, 25-15).

Sophomore setter Hallie Donathan (Tipp City, Ohio/Tippecanoe) made a big impact with team-leading figures in assists (38) and service aces (3), even adding a block for good measure, all coming against Carnegie Mellon. Just behind her in the assist column was senior Amy Cox (Newark, Ohio/Catholic), who turned in 32 assists against Mount St. Joseph.

Junior hitter Catherine Farny (Fort Wayne, Ind./Concordia Lutheran) paced the offense with 19 kills, 14 coming against the Lions of Mount St. Joseph on a .565 hitting percentage.

Sophomore outside hitter Jessie Batanian (Toledo, Ohio/Notre Dame) was next with 14 kills, including 10 against the Lions. Three more Tigers reached double figures in kills on the day, including junior Kimmie Dyer (Copley, Ohio/Copley) with 12 on .458 hitting, junior Miranda Sagle (Springfield, Ohio/Shawnee) with 13 on .407 hitting, and junior Hillary Monnin (Russia, Ohio/Russia) with 12 kills.

Sagle added four blocks between the two matches, while junior Katie Sumner (Dublin, Ohio/Watterson), freshman Andrea Behling (Columbus, Ind./North) and Batanian all chipped in with three total blocks.

Sophomore libero Christina Gilene (Milford, Ohio/McNicholas) topped the dig charts with 25, followed closely by Monnin with 22 splitting defensive duties against Carnegie Mellon with freshman libero Quin Gable (West Chicago, Ill./West Chicago), who picked up nine.