Tigers Pull Out Road Win In Battle Of Top 10 Teams

ALLIANCE, Ohio - The Wittenberg Tigers picked up a key win over a top Great Lakes Region rival with a 3-1 road victory over Ohio Athletic Conference (OAC) powerhouse Mount Union.

The win was fifth-ranked Wittenberg's 11th in a row on the 2014 season as the Tigers improved to 17-3 overall. Sixth-ranked Mount Union, which dropped to 21-3, has lost 11 straight matches to the Tigers. The Purple Raiders have not beaten Wittenberg since 1993.

Wittenberg was dominant in winning the first, third and fourth sets by matching 25-16 scores. Mount Union battled back in the second frame to win 25-18, keyed by an 8-0 in the early going that turned an 8-5 Wittenberg lead into a 13-8 Mount advantage.

The Tigers led wire-to-wire in the first and third sets, highlighted by an 11-0 spurt with sophomore Courtney Huck (Decatur, Ill./St. Teresa) serving to open the third frame. In the fourth set, Mount Union battled back to take an 11-10 lead only to see the Tigers pull away by winning 15 of the next 20 points.

Wittenberg attacked at an extremely efficient .284 clip in the match, compared to .136 for Mount Union. Individually, the Tigers were paced by a tremendous performance from sophomore middle hitter Emily Kahlig (Coldwater, Ohio/Coldwater), who pounded eight kills in 11 attempts without an error for a .727 attack percentage.

Junior right-side hitter Kara Seidenstricker (London, Ohio/Jonathan Alder) played to her customary All-America caliber, finishing with 16 kills, a .452 attack percentage, 11 digs and three blocks. Sophomore Camila Quiñones (Sunbury, Ohio/Worthington Christian) added 10 kills and three blocks, and junior Bryanna Jay (Girard, Ohio/Girard) chipped in with nine kills and three blocks. Senior Meghan Vodopich (Canton, Ohio/Perry) and Huck split 43 assists nearly evenly.

The defense was paced by sophomore Kendall Farmer (Gurnee, Ill./Warren Township) with four blocks and senior Kiah Murray (Yorktown, Ind./Yorktown) with 17 digs.

Written By: Ryan Maurer