Wittenberg defeats Denison in NCAC Volleyball Semifinals

The No. 1 seed, Wittenberg University, overwhelmed the No. 4 seed Denison University in the North Coast Athletic Conference tournament semifinals on Friday evening at Wittenberg's HPER Center. The Tigers, who have won eight of the last 10 NCAC tournament titles, including the last six consecutively, advanced to the NCAC Tournament championship match on Saturday with the win, where they will face the winner of tonight's other semifinal between Allegheny College and Hiram College.

Wittenberg slowly pulled away in each of the three games, relinquishing the early lead before going on long serving runs to gain control. The Tigers, who are ranked fifth in the nation and were national quarterfinalists a year ago, got 11 kills from junior Kristin Fox (Galion, Ohio/Galion) and 10 more from senior Lindsay Nelson (Massillon, Ohio/Tuslaw). Sophomore Emily Dixon (Granville, Ohio/Granville)added five blocks, junior Emilie Schmid (Canton, Ohio/Massillon Jackson) was tremendous defensively with 28 digs and junior Sarah Yuskewich (Columbus, Ohio/Watterson) put forth her usual stellar performance with 44 assists.

Denison, which dropped to 17-17 overall and missed out on the NCAC Tournament championship match for the first time in four years, was paced by junior Dana Twomey (Atherton, Calif./Menlo School), who had 21 digs, sophomore Katie Quinter (Minster, Ohio/Minster), who finished with 10 kills, and sophomore Leslie Kreinberg (Pepper Pike, Ohio/Orange), who chipped in with five blocks.

The win improved fifth-ranked Wittenberg to 26-6 overall after the Tigers won eight straight NCAC regular season matches to run their incredible seven-year win streak to 51. The Tigers will be appearing in their ninth straight tournament title match and their 12 in the last 13 years.