After a season of firsts, the Wittenberg volleyball team entered the NCAA Division III semifinals on the precipice of school history. The five seniors on the 2007 team – Emily Bell, Jan Kehres, Sarah Matesich, Caitlin Augustus and Lindsey Penrod – hoped to finish what they had started by leading a Wittenberg team to its first NCAA Division III title in a women’s sport.

However, a 3-1 loss to Washington University on Nov. 16 did nothing to minimize the quintet’s accomplishments.

Before this year’s senior class arrived on campus – the first class recruited by Head Coach Paco Labrador – Wittenberg volleyball was on the national radar, a regular in the national top-25 rankings in the midst of a lengthy run of North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC) championships. But four years later, there is no question – this group has raised the bar. The program has finished in the top five nationally each of the last four years while winning four straight NCAA Division III Great Lakes Region titles.

It may have ended without a national championship trophy, but the 2007 season was historic almost from the outset. The Tigers became the first team in NCAC history to go unbeaten in the regular season, capping a perfect 34-0 campaign with the 12th NCAC regular season title in the last 13 years and the 12th NCAC Tournament crown in the last 13 years. Wittenberg finished the season ranked No. 3 in the nation with a 38-1 overall record after entering the NCAA Division III Tournament with the only perfect record in all of collegiate volleyball.

En route to the national semifinals, the Tigers held a stunning 114- 6 advantage in games won, including a school- and NCAC-record 54 in a row, which bettered the previous NCAA Division III record of 49 but fell three short of the new mark established by Wisconsin-Oshkosh during the 2007 season.

It wasn’t just about one glorious season, however, as this senior class has set standards that will be very difficult for the successors to match. Wittenberg compiled a 142-17 record between 2004 and 2007, the best four-year run in school history.

— Ryan Maurer