Posted by: Ryan Maurer

Kate Rolf

Stephanie Campbell

Meghan Bruggeman

For the first time in five years, the Tiger women's basketball team will participate in the NCAA Division III Women's Basketball Tournament. The Tigers will play at Baldwin-Wallace at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, March 5. The winner of that game earns a date with seventh-ranked Wilmington in the second round at 3 p.m. Saturday.

Wittenberg is back in the NCAA tourney for the first time since 1998 and the seventh time in school history. The Tigers have a 1-6 record in NCAA tournament action, dating back to their first appearance in 1989.

To reach the national tournament, the Tigers put on a clinic in capturing their sixth North Coast Athletic Conference Tournament title since joining the conference prior to the 1988-89 season. The Tigers stretched their winning streak to 19 since the calendar flipped to 2003 by defeating Oberlin, Allegheny and Ohio Wesleyan at home by an average of 47 points per game.

The title run began Tuesday for the top-seeded and regular season champion Tigers in the tourney quarterfinals as Wittenberg defeated Oberlin, 86-46. Wittenberg opened up a 38-17 halftime lead and then coasted home in the second half as all 16 players in uniform saw at least two minutes of action.

Wittenberg put five players in double figures, led by junior guard Amber Bishop (Batavia, Ohio/Batavia) with 15 points. Senior forward Tiffany Keller (Massillon, Ohio/Tuslaw) added 12 points and three players finished with 10 tallies, senior guards Stephanie Campbell (South Charleston, Ohio/Southeastern) and Kate Rolf (Ft. Wayne, Ind./Carroll) and senior center Rebecca Meers (Moline, Ill./Moline).

On Friday in the semifinals against Allegheny, the Tigers buried the fourth-seeded Gators, 95-27. Wittenberg jumped out to a 13-7 lead early in the first half and then closed it by scoring 43 of the next 49 points to go into the locker room with a commanding 56-13 advantage. The second half was no better as Wittenberg's reserves picked up where the starters left off.

Wittenberg was led by Rolf's game-high 19 points after she hit her first seven shots from the field and Campbell added 12 points, five assists, four steals and eight rebounds. Junior forward Haley Warden (Loveland, Ohio/Indian Hill) added seven points, nine rebounds and four assists, junior guard Kari Kitchen (South Charleston, Ohio/Southeastern) had five points and three assists and junior guard Christina Fischer (Norwood, Ohio/Cincinnati St. Ursula) had six points and three assists. Neither Kitchen or Fischer, the team's point guards, committed a turnover.

In the championship game, Wittenberg toppled two-time defending NCAC tournament champion Ohio Wesleyan, 72-58, on the same court where the Battling Bishops had won the 2002 title.

Wittenberg expanded an eight-point halftime advantage to 61-38 with 8:17 remaining in the game, and then hung on to close out the win. The Tigers took 26 more shots from the field because they won the rebounding battle 40-31, including 16-5 on the offensive end, and forced 25 OWU turnovers, compared to 14 by the Tigers.

Wittenberg was paced offensively by senior forward Meghan Bruggeman (Middletown, Ohio/Fenwick), who had 15 points and six rebounds. Warden added 10 points and five rebounds, Keller chipped in with eight points and seven boards, Campbell finished with nine points and five assists and Rolf hit for eight points, four rebounds and four steals.

Campbell, Bruggeman and Rolf were named to the All-Tournament Team. Rolf earned the added recognition of Most Outstanding Player.

Next: 3/5 at Baldwin-Wallace, 7:30 p.m.
NCAA Division III Tournament

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Demetrius Ellison

Kelly Zilli

The Tiger track and field teams are preparing this week for the NCAC Indoor Championships, scheduled for Friday and Saturday at Denison. Last year, Wittenberg finished second in the men's competition, while the women claimed fourth place.

The Tigers figure to be very much in the mix again in 2003, especially considering that the men finished second in the NCAC Relays on Feb. 1 and the women claimed third in that meet. While that meet with its relay event format isn't a predictor of eventual championship meet finishes, it can give a pretty good indication of which teams will be the most competitive.

Junior Skip Ivery (Columbus, Ohio/Groveport-Madison) has not lost to an NCAA Division III competitor in the high hurdles events so far this year, and he has never been defeated in the high hurdles at the NCAC Indoor Championships. Ivery recently broke his own school record in the 55-meter hurdles with a blistering time of 7.60, good for an NCAA Division III provisional qualifying time. It is the top time in the event in the NCAC this year.

Ivery won't be the only big point-scorer for the Tiger men, however. Junior sprinter Demetrius Ellison (Cleveland, Ohio/Garfield Heights Trinity) has the top times in the conference in the 200 and 400-meter races. Coming off an injury-plagued 2002 campaign, Ellison is a key to the Tigers' hopes in individual sprint events and the relays.

Speaking of relays, the Tigers' 4x200 relay has turned in the best time of 2003 after nearly capturing the meet record at the NCAC Relays. In addition, Wittenberg will need strong performances from sophomore Joe Rumschlag (Maumee, Ohio/Toledo Christian) in the long jump, triple jump and relays and senior Joel Drake (Springfield, Ohio/Shawnee), the NCAC Indoor Track Field Events Athlete of the Week after winning the shot put at the DePauw Tiger Invitational.

Blue ribbons earned by Drake and Ivery were the individual highlights for the Tigers as they finished third out of 12 teams at DePauw. The Wittenberg women also took third place.

On the women's side, several individuals will have to be at their best for Wittenberg to keep pace with defending NCAC Indoor champion Allegheny, which has already claimed the conference cross country championship and the indoor relays title this year. Among them is junior Kelly Zilli (Dayton, Ohio/Kettering Alter), who set a school record in the pole vault last week at DePauw. Zilli is potentially a big point-scorer in that event, the 800 meter race and in relays.

The team leader this season has been junior Kristen Mumper (Cincinnati, Ohio/Purcell Marian), who has broken her own school record in the triple jump twice this year and has posted an NCAA Division III provisional qualifying mark of 36 feet, seven inches. That jump is the best in the NCAC thus far in 2003. Mumper also scores in the long jump and sprinting events. In addition, two-time NCAC cross country champion Abi Gerstle (Kettering, Ohio/Fairmont) figures to be a factor in the distance races and senior Erin Zayicek (Solon, Ohio/Solon) has the best mark in the NCAC this year in the weight throw.

Next: Next: 3/7-8 NCAC Championships
at Denison

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Daniel Russ

Kevin Longley

The Tiger men's basketball team went into the NCAC tournament with a head of steam, having won six straight games, including a defeat of nationally ranked eventual regular season champion Wooster on Feb. 15. Unfortunately, that momentum didn't carry over into the tourney as the Tigers struggled to defeat Denison on Tuesday in the quarterfinals before falling to No. 3 seed Allegheny in the semifinals on Friday night at Wooster.

The week started with a hard-fought 80-74 victory over visiting Denison. Wittenberg had won the previous two meetings 70-48 and 75-51, but the seventh-seeded Big Red gave the second-seeded and defending NCAC tournament champion Tigers all they could handle in the third meeting, forcing eight lead changes, including one as late as the 10:15 mark of the second half.

After that, however, Wittenberg slowly pulled away for the win. Senior forward Kevin Longley (Vandalia, Ohio/Butler) scored eight points in the final six minutes of the game to finish with a season-high 20 tallies, while junior guard Rod Emmons (South Bend, Ind./John Adams) added four free throws in the final 23 seconds to finally seal the deal.

Wittenberg got 20 points from Longley, 19 from freshman center Daniel Russ (Louisville, Ky./Trinity) and 17 tallies from senior center B.J. Harris (Riverside, Ohio/Stebbins). Those three players made 19-of-23 shots from the field as they completely dominated the paint.

Against Allegheny, the Tigers dominated the rebounding category 40-26, made 10 more shots while shooting 52 percent from the field (compared to 38 percent for Allegheny) and also hit 80 percent of their free throw attempts. The difference in a 73-72 Allegheny upset was three-point shooting as the Gators hit an NCAC tournament record 13 from beyond the arc, and free throw shooting as the Gators made 18-of-21, including six straight in the final 2:51 of the game.

And thus, for the first time in three years, the Tigers will be watching the NCAC tournament title game from the sidelines. The Gators had previously dashed Wittenberg's hopes of a third consecutive NCAC regular season championship on Feb. 8 with a 66-63 victory in Meadville, Pa.

The Gators got out of the gate with a three-pointer just one minute into play and eventually stretched the lead to 38-22 with a 13-0 run. Wittenberg responded with a 12-4 run to close the half and came back to take a 50-48 lead with 11:25 remaining. The lead see-sawed back and forth the rest of the way before Wittenberg misfired on two shots in the final 12 seconds.

For the game, Wittenberg once again got almost all of its points in the paint as Harris led the way with 16 points and seven rebounds in his final game in the Red and White. Sophomore forward Andy Bucheit (Cincinnati, Ohio/LaSalle) provided a lift off the bench with 14 points after missing Tuesday's win due to illness and Russ and Longley each added 10 points. Longley led the Tigers on the boards with nine rebounds.

Next: Season Complete

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The Wittenberg men's and women's swimming and diving teams learned last week that junior Steve Rader (Painesville, Ohio/Cleveland St. Ignatius) and freshman Rebecca Searcy (Shelbyville, Ky./Shelby County Bloomington) had qualified for the NCAA Division III Championship Meets scheduled for March 13-15 for the women and March 20-22 for the men.

Rader is making his third consecutive appearance in the national meet. Already an All-America honoree several times over, Rader posted an NCAA B cut time in the 200-yard Individual Medley after finishing second in the event at the NCAC meet. Searcy posted three NCAA B cuts after improving her times in the 500 free, 1650 free and 400 IM at the NCAC meet. She finished fifth in the 500 free with a time of 5:07.37, fourth in the 1650 free in 17:39.54 and third in the 400 IM in 4:36.63. The latter time was a school record and earned Searcy her first All-NCAC honor.

Next: 3/13-15 NCAA Div. III Champs.
at Atlanta, Ga. (Women)
3/20-22 NCAA Div. III Champs.
at Atlanta, Ga. (Men)