Wittenberg Takes Down Alma To Advance To NCAA Regional Final

ADA, Ohio - The Wittenberg Tigers, ranked No. 2 in the nation and No. 1 in the Great Lakes Region, defeated Alma College Friday in the second round of the 2004 NCAA Division III Tournament at Ohio Northern University. Game scores in the 3-0 win were 30-21, 31-29 and 30-21.

It was the second straight year that the Tigers, champions of the North Coast Athletic Conference regular season and tournament for an eighth straight season, defeated Alma in a second round national tournament match. Last year's score was also 3-0, only that match was played in Springfield in Wittenberg's HPER Center. The Tigers improved to 34-2 overall on the 2004 season, while Alma, regular season champions of the Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association and the 18th ranked team in the nation, bowed out of the tourney with a mark of 34-2. Alma reached the second round with a 3-0 win on Thursday over Benedictine.

The first game was evenly played until the Tigers reeled off five straight points to stretch a tenuous 15-14 advantage into a 20-14 lead. From there, Wittenberg could trade points the rest of the way out and moved out to a 30-21 victory. The difference in the game was an attack percentage of .273 (18 kills, three errors, 55 attempts) for Wittenberg to .062 (13, 9, 64) for Alma.

The second game was nip-and-tuck throughout, and the Tigers trailed at several points, including at 29-28. But the Tigers took three straight points to close things out and steal the momentum back from a confident, veteran Alma team and move out to a 31-29 victory. Both teams played fine defense, but once again the Tigers' superior offense came to the forefront in the form of a 23-18 advantage in kills.

The third game was pretty much all Tigers as they jumped out to a lead and never looked back, taking the game and the match with a 30-21 score. The attack percentage difference told the story as Wittenberg made just two errors in 39 attempts, compared with six in 48 attempts for Alma.

"Alma was one of the most tenacious defensive teams we've played all season," said Tigers Head Coach Paco Labrador. "We displayed great poise and patience in a match that was full of long rallies and spectacular digs. We still have a long way to go to reach our goal of a national championship, but we're off to a good start."

Senior outside hitter Monica McDonald was the team leader in kills with 15 in the match, followed by freshman outside hitter Emily Bell with 12 and senior middle hitter Kristin Fox with 10. Senior setter Sarah Yuskewich was outstanding with 49 assists, giving her 1,470 on the season and 6,129 in her illustrious career. She already holds the NCAC and school records for assists in a career and season, and she is now less than 900 assists shy of the NCAA Division III record for career assists.

Defensively, senior libero Emilie Schmid reached yet another milestone as she surpassed 1,000 digs in a season, extending her school and NCAC record to go along with the marks she holds for career digs. Now with 2,644 digs in her career after posting a march-high 36 against Alma, Schmid is just 90 digs short of the NCAA Division III record of 1,100 digs in a season.

The Tigers will make their third straight appearance in the NCAA Sweet 16 on Saturday and the sixth in school history. In 2002, Wittenberg won its only Great Lakes Regional title with a 3-0 win over Mount St. Joseph, only to fall 3-1 at eventual national champion Wisconsin-Whitewater in the national quarterfinals. Last year, Ohio Northern bested Wittenberg 3-2 in a thrilling match before more than 1,000 fans in Springfield. The Polar Bears were knocked out in the national quarterfinals by eventual national champion Washington University.