Tigers Roll Past Allegheny Into NCAC Tournament Semifinals

SPRINGFIELD, Ohio - The Wittenberg Tigers efficiently handled their first round North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC) Tournament business, disposing of Allegheny 3-0.

The win was Wittenberg's 14th straight in NCAC Tournament play, dating back to a 2006 loss in the championship match to Hiram. The Tigers, seeded No. 1 after winning the regular season title with a perfect 8-0 record, improved to 21-8 overall on the 2013 campaign. Eighth-seeded Allegheny fell to 8-20.

Wittenberg advanced to take on fourth-seeded DePauw, which beat Oberlin in a first round match, at noon Saturday in a tournament semifinal match. The Tigers upended DePauw 3-1 during the regular season.

The quarterfinal victory was achieved in less than one hour as the Tigers won the three sets by scores of 25-4, 25-9 and 25-10.

The Gators managed just .033 attack percentage, compared to .479 for Wittenberg, which was a season-high by a wide margin. The Tigers committed just five errors on 71 swings while pounding 39 kills.

Leading the charge offensively was freshman Camila Quinones (Sunbury, Ohio/Worthington Christian). She finished with 11 kills in 13 attempts without an error for a robust .846 attack percentage. That ranks third in program history for attack percentage in a three-set match during the 25-point era.

Senior Andrea Behling (Columbus, Ind./North) added seven kills and a .583 attack percentage, while junior Meghan Vodopich (Canton, Ohio/Massillon Perry) was stellar all-around as usual, finishing with six kills, 26 assists, four service aces and five digs. Also of note was the play of sophomore Melissa Emming (West Chester, Ohio/Mount Notre Dame) with five kills and a .417 attack percentage.

The Tigers won 18 points on service aces, led by sophomore Kara Seidenstricker (London, Ohio/Jonathan Alder) with seven. Defensively, Wittenberg did the job with 35 digs, although the Tigers did not register a single block in the match.