Wittenberg senior Jennifer Emming in action against Calvin College on Sept. 27.

SPRINGFIELD, Ohio - The Wittenberg University volleyball team is once again the preeminent team in the North Coast Athletic Conference. After clinching a seventh consecutive conference regular season title with a perfect 8-0 record, the Tigers are hoping to extend their season quite a bit further.

The Tigers are 21-5 overall and 8-0 in the NCAC heading into this weekend's tournament at Trinity (Texas), where six nationally ranked teams are going head-to-head. Wittenberg has now won 51 straight NCAC matches, dating back to October 1997 and a five-game defeat at Case Western Reserve. The Tigers have also won 18 consecutive NCAC Tournament matches - and six straight tourney titles - dating back to a 3-2 loss to Ohio Wesleyan in the 1996 championship match.

Dating back to 1992, Wittenberg has won eight of the last 10 NCAC Tournament championships, and the top-seeded Tigers will begin the quest for their ninth crown in 11 years on Tuesday with a home match against eighth-seeded Ohio Wesleyan at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 4. A win in that match and the Tigers would advance to the NCAC Tournament semifinals, an event Wittenberg would host at 5:30 and 8 p.m. Friday, Nov. 7, in the HPER Center. The conference tourney title match is slated for 2 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 8.

Wittenberg is angling for an eighth straight NCAA Division III Tournament berth and an opportunity to extend the successes of a year ago, when the Tigers finished 34-8 overall and won the first Great Lakes Regional title in school history. Wittenberg, which is ranked fifth in the nation in the latest American Volleyball Coaches Association poll, lost to eventual national champion Wisconsin-Whitewater in the national quarterfinals a year ago.

The Tigers have displayed tremendous balance in 2003 under the direction of first-year Head Coach Paco Labrador, who took over for the winningest coach in school history, Connie Surowicz, in April. Junior Sarah Yuskewich (Columbus, Ohio/Watterson), a first-team All-America selection in 2002, leads the team, the conference and ranks fifth in the nation in assists per game at 12.79, a year after she set an NCAA Division III record with 2,125 assists in a season. She has already set a school record for assists in a career. Junior Kristin Fox (Galion, Ohio/Galion) leads the team and ranks third in the NCAC in kills with 3.59 per game. Junior Emilie Schmid (Canton, Ohio/Massillon Jackson) ranks first in the conference and third in the nation with 7.40 digs per game, and she is on pace to set a school record for digs in a season.