2004 News
The watershed moment that changed the Wittenberg athletic landscape forever occurred on April 3, 1955, with the most important hiring in the department's illustrious history.
Another banner fall sports season has reaped rich rewards for 27 Wittenberg University athletes who were selected to All-North Coast Athletic Conference teams over the last two weeks.
Another banner fall sports season has reaped rich rewards for 27 Wittenberg University athletes who were selected to All-North Coast Athletic Conference teams over the last two weeks.
Setting the Scene: The Wittenberg University women's soccer team enjoyed a breakthrough in 2004, and the hope is that the foundation is now laid for the program to remain at or near the top of the North Coast Athletic Conference and Great Lakes Region for years to come.
CLEVELAND, Ohio — Ohio Wesleyan junior forward Sarah Wall (Columbus, Ohio/Upper Arlington) and Wittenberg sophomore defender Jamie McIntyre (Columbus, Ohio/Grandview) have been named Offensive and Defensive Players of the Year to highlight the 2004 All-North Coast Athletic Conference women's soccer selections.
The Wittenberg women's soccer team nearly did what would have been thought to be impossible at the start of the 2004 season. The precocious young Tigers advanced to the North Coast Athletic Conference Tournament championship game before finally seeing their season end on Saturday.
A dream season had to come to an end sometime, and it appears that the 2004 season finally may have come to an end for the Wittenberg women's soccer team. The Tigers, making their first appearance in the North Coast Athletic Conference Tournament championship game, lost 1-0 to nationally ranked and top-seeded Ohio Wesleyan on Saturday.
Making their first appearance in the North Coast Athletic Conference Women's Soccer Tournament since 2001, the Wittenberg Tigers pulled off one of the biggest upsets in school history to advance to Saturday's championship game as they knocked off 14th ranked Denison University, 4-3 on penalty kicks. The game officially goes down as a tie as the two teams battled to a 0-0 tie through regulation and two 10-minute overtime periods, but the Tigers advanced to the title game with the penalty kick advantage.
The Wittenberg Tigers won the game they had to win, and when both Allegheny and Kenyon were defeated in similar win-or-go-home games, the storybook ending was complete. The Tigers, with freshmen and sophomores scattered throughout the roster and all through the starting lineup as well, had advanced to the North Coast Athletic Conference Tournament for the first time since 2001 with a 2-0 victory over Oberlin College.
The Wittenberg women's soccer team has played extremely well in the 2004 season, but in the rugged North Coast Athletic Conference that isn't always good enough. Saddled with a 4-3 conference record following Wednesday's 2-1 loss at nationally ranked Denison, the Tigers must defeat Oberlin on Saturday and hope for a loss by either Allegheny or Kenyon or see their season come to an unexpectedly early close.
The Wittenberg Tiger women's soccer program is clearly on the rise this year, but that doesn't make losses like Wednesday's at Denison University any less painful. The Tigers lost a key North Coast Athletic Conference game to Denison, ranked No. 14 in the nation, by a 2-1 score.
The Wittenberg Tigers came to Edwards-Maurer Field with a job to do and they made sure they took care of it. Needing a win to remain in the mix for the North Coast Athletic Conference postseason tournament, the Tigers came out and easily took care of their conference foe. The Tigers were able to push a goal across in each half to beat the Hiram Terriers 2-0.
The Wittenberg women's soccer team was overdue for a stumble, and it finally came last week. The youthful Tigers had been wracked by injuries to key players and had won six games by razor-thin 1-0 margins before finally losing 4-1 at home to Kenyon in a key North Coast Athletic Conference match-up on Wednesday.
The steady drizzle and fog that enshrouded Bill Edwards Field on Tuesday matched the mood on the Wittenberg Tigers bench by game's end as the visiting Kenyon Ladies captured a hard-fought 4-1 victory. The loss dropped the Tigers into a tie with Kenyon in the North Coast Athletic Conference standings at 3-2. Wittenberg is 9-2-4 overall, while Kenyon is now 9-5-1 overall. Both remain very much in the hunt for the 2004 NCAC Tournament with three games remaining.
The Wittenberg Tigers may not score too many goals, but with a stout defense that yields few offensive opportunities and even fewer goals to its opponents, that's ok. For the sixth time in 2004, the Tigers won a game 1-0, this time victimizing the visiting Urbana Blue Knights.
It doesn't matter that Wittenberg took 21 more shots than its opponent, nor does it matter that the ball was almost exclusively in the Earlham end of the field. What matters is the 1-0 score on the board at the end of the game, which gave the Tigers a hard-fought victory over the visiting Quakers and improved Wittenberg to 8-1-4 overall and 3-1 in the North Coast Athletic Conference on the season.