Wittenberg Upsets Denison On Penalty Kicks To Advance In NCAC Tournament
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.
GRANVILLE, Ohio - 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.
Freshman goalkeeper Meghan O'Rourke was credited with five saves in the game for the Tigers, who were outshot 14-10. Denison's goalkeeper, who last week stopped a penalty shot late in the second half to preserve a 2-1 regular season victory over Wittenberg, also went down with five saves.
The game came down to penalty kicks, and the youthful Tigers forced the perennial powerhouse Big Red to blink first. Sophomore forward Liz Volz, senior midfielder Rachel Ridgeway and freshman midfielder Lisa Rusch matched the Big Red on the first three penalty kick attempts, leaving nothing decided heading into fourth round. After just missing saves on the first two Denison attempts, O'Rourke came up with her biggest save of the season on the fourth Big Red attempt on a perfect read. Then freshman forward Amanda Farrell, who had missed the second half of the game due to illness, calmly buried the fourth Tiger attempt in the shootout. O'Rourke then ended things with another perfect read and subsequent save, giving the Tigers the stunning win.
"We have to give a ton of credit to Coach Murphy and the Denison program for the way they played and the class act they are," said Wittenberg Head Coach Norm Riker. "It showed a lot of character in our team, and I give our players so much credit for the way they hung in there and battled all game. To be able to advance on penalty kicks, and to do that with the composure we showed, made me very proud of our team."
The Tigers, the No. 3 seed in the tournament after a third-place finish in the NCAC regular season, improved to 11-3-5 overall. Denison, the defending NCAC Tournament champion, fell to 15-4-1 and will be considered for an at-large berth in the NCAA Division III Tournament. Wittenberg will play at Ohio Wesleyan on Saturday at 7 p.m. to earn the right to compete in the national tournament. The nationally ranked Battling Bishops, a 1-0 overtime winner over the Tigers during the regular season, is the No. 1 seed after winning the regular season championship. They defeated Allegheny 2-0 on Wednesday to advance to the title game..