Ranked No. 2 nationally, the Tigers improved to 26-4 overall and 6-5 in 11 all-time NCAA Division III tournament matches against Ohio Northern. Wittenberg advanced to take on the winner of a first-round match between fifth-ranked Hope and 10th-ranked Otterbein at 4:30 p.m. today.
Wittenberg may be the defending national champion, but the Tigers’ lineup in 2012 features just three players who saw extensive action in 2011.
“The question for us was going to be how the young players would react to the bright lights and the big stage,” said coach Paco Labrador, who is 322-45 in nine seasons. “After a little bit of a slow start, I thought we responded well. We had a lot of different players step up.”
Kara Seidenstricker, the NCAC and Great Lakes Region freshman of the year, was one of those players who improved as the match progressed. She finished the first set with two kills and two errors as the Tigers pulled out a 25-23 win after trailing early in the set. She pounded eight kills without an error in the second set en route to a match-high 19 kills and a .341 attack percentage as Wittenberg took the second set 25-20 and the third by a 25-17 count.
Senior Jessica Batanian added 14 kills and junior Andrea Behling was strong in the middle with 10 kills. Defensively, the Tigers put four players in double figures in digs, led by two-time NCAC libero of the year Christina Gilene, who finished with 21.
The widest and perhaps most significant statistical disparity in the match was service aces, as the Tigers finished with eight from five different players. Defensively, Wittenberg did not allow an Ohio Northern ace.
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