Wittenberg University Athletics - Volleyball 2001 News Releases

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2001 Volleyball Press Releases

November 14, 2001 -

McDonald

Yuskewich

Murphy

The Tigers' dreams of a national championship will once again have to wait a year after Ohio Athletic Conference champion Ohio Northern Polar Bears knocked Wittenberg out of the 2001 NCAA Division III Tournament. The Great Lakes Region's No. 2 seed, Wittenberg struggled defensively against the Polar Bears, falling 3-1 in a hard-fought match.

The Tigers, who were making their sixth straight appearance in the NCAA Division III

tournament and seventh since 1993, received a first-round bye and played ONU on Friday night at Mt. St. Joseph in Cincinnati. Wittenberg got 25 kills from freshman Monica McDonald (Newark, Ohio/Catholic), 55 assists from freshman Sarah Yuskewich (Columbus, Ohio/Bishop Watterson) and 12 kills and 13 digs from junior Teresa Murphy (Blacklick, Ohio/Newark Catholic) in the loss.

Despite the loss and another failed attempt to advance beyond the regional competition, the future continues to be bright for the NCAC champions. Wittenberg did not have a senior on the roster in 2001, meaning that all six starters - including three freshmen - will return in 2002.

Next: Season Complete

November 6, 2001 -

Brittany Baume, Shelli Habegger,
Teresa Murphy and Tiffany Keller

The Wittenberg University women's volleyball team won its fifth consecutive - and eighth in the last 10 years - North Coast Athletic Conference volleyball tournament championship last weekend. The title earned the Tigers an automatic bid to the NCAA Division III tournament and the No. 2 seed in the Great Lakes Regional.

Wittenberg gets a first round bye in the regional tournament hosted by top-seeed Mt. St. Joseph. The Tigers, who are making their sixth straight appearance in the NCAA Division III tournament and seventh since 1993, will play the winner of a first round match between No. 3 seed Ohio Northern, the Ohio Athletic Conference champion, and No. 6 seed Johnson & Wales, champions of the Great Northeast Athletic Conference.

The Tigers advanced by winning three straight NCAC matches without dropping a game. Wittenberg dispatched Oberlin,

Wooster and Denison, all on their home court. Junior outside hitter Teresa Murphy (Blacklick, Ohio/Newark Catholic) and freshman outside hitter Monica McDonald (Newark, Ohio/Catholic), the team's kill leaders, were both named to the NCAC All-Tournament team. Junior middle hitter Tiffany Keller (Massillon, Ohio/Tuslaw) was named Tournament MVP after a dominating defensive performance in the title match victory over Denison.

The Tigers have participated in the national tournament every year since 1996. While Wittenberg has dominated the conference, compiling a 61-3 regular season NCAC record since Surowicz arrived in 1994 and winning eight of the last 10 tournament crowns, the Tigers are 4-6 in NCAA tournament action. Two of those NCAA wins came last year in the same Great Lakes Regional as Wittenberg defeated the U.S. Merchant Marines and Ohio Northern before falling to the top-seeded host team, Mt. St. Joseph, for the fifth time in the 2000 season.

McDonald led the conference in kills per game this season and is a strong candidate for NCAC Newcomer of the Year. Her best competition may be freshman setter Sarah Yuskewich (Columbus, Ohio/Bishop Watterson), who ranked among the conference's elite in assists.

October 30, 2001 -

Tiffany Keller

Monica McDonald

Sarah Yuskewich

The Tigers have ranked among the nation's elite for several years, but last weekend at the Trinity (Texas) Invitational coach Connie Surowicz hopes her team enjoyed a breakthrough of sorts.

With a fourth straight outright regular season North Coast Athletic Conference championship already sewn up, the Tigers hit the road for one last time in the regular season and came away with three wins in four matches, including a pair of victories over teams ranked in the top five nationally.Wittenberg

defeated Texas Lutheran in three sets to open action, then beat No. 2 ranked Juniata in five and No. 3 Wartburg in five before finally running out of steam against the host team, ranked No. 5, in another grueling five-setter.

It was the fourth time this year that Wittenberg had made it to the final match of a round robin regular season tournament without a loss, only to be denied the crown. The Tigers also lost in the final match at Mt. St. Joseph, Elmhurst and in their own tournament earlier this year.

Junior middle hitter Tiffany Keller (Massillon, Ohio/Tuslaw continued her impressive play, pounding 46 kills in 89 total attempts, good for a phenomenal .463 attack percentage. She also paced the team in blocks with 19. Her outstanding performance earned her recognition as NCAC Player of the Week.

A pair of freshman also continued to play well as the season heads toward what the Tigers hope is another exciting conclusion. Outside hitter Monica McDonald (Newark, Ohio/Catholic) led the team in kills over the weekend and continues to rank among the conference's best in that category. Setter Sarah Yuskewich (Columbus, Ohio/Bishop Watterson) had more than 70 assists in one of the matches and leads the team with more than eight per game this season.

Wittenberg is back in action this week as the probable host team of the NCAC Tournament. Oberlin, the eighth seed, comes calling in quarterfinal action on Tuesday. A win against the Yeowomen will earn the top-seeded Tigers the right to host the semifinals and finals of the tournament over the weekend, with action getting underway on Friday at 5 p.m.

October 24, 2001 -

Tiffany Keller

Sarah Yuskewich

After struggling against some of the best competition in the nation, the Tigers enjoyed a return to normalcy last week, winning a tough non-conference match at Thomas More last Thursday and then easily defeating North Coast Athletic Conference foes Kenyon and Oberlin on Saturday.

The latter two wins earned Wittenberg its fourth consecutive perfect 8-0 record in NCAC regular season action. Wittenberg has not lost an NCAC regular season match since 1997 at Case Western Reserve.

The Tigers continue to spread the action around as freshman Monica McDonald (Newark, Ohio/Catholic) and junior Teresa Murphy (Blacklick, Ohio/Newark Catholic) lead the squad in kills with 403 and 321 respectively on the season. Junior Tiffany Keller (Massillon, Ohio/Tuslaw) is third in kills with 195 and first in blocks with 0.90 per game. And junior Shelli Habegger (Curtice, Ohio/Oregon Clay) and freshman Sarah Yuskewich (Columbus, Ohio/Bishop Watterson) have split the setting duties and are combining for more than 14 assists per game.

The Tigers head back into competition against the nation's elite this weekend with a trip to Trinity (Texas). Then Wittenberg returns home to host Oberlin in the first round of the NCAC tournament next Tuesday at 7 p.m. in the HPER Center. A win there earns Wittenberg the right to host the NCAC tournament for the fourth straight year.

October 16, 2001 -

The Tigers stepped outside the NCAC again last weekend and took a look at how they stacked up against the best of the best in NCAA Division III. Wittenberg, as it turned out, didn't stack up too high, finishing fourth in the five-team Wittenberg National Invitational over the weekend. But the team is actually encouraged rather than discouraged.

Wittenberg opened the week by winning its sixth straight NCAC match of the 2001 season, a 3-0 whitewashing of Ohio Wesleyan last Wednesday. Then in the Wittenberg National Invitational on Friday and Saturday, the host team defeated Thomas More before losing to No. 1 Wisconsin-Whitewater, No. 2 Mt. St. Joseph and No. 5 Juniata. The Tigers managed to win a game in only one of those three matches.

Freshman outside hitter Monica McDonald (Newark, Ohio/Catholic) was outstanding again in the tournament. After pounding 86 kills in five matches the week before, McDonald was back at it again last week, totaling 68 kills for a 4.25 average. That was good for NCAC Player of the Week honors. She ranks among the league leaders with 371 kills in 86 games in 2001, good for a 4.3 average.

This is a week to regroup before a big push toward the conclusion of the 2001 season and what the team hopes will be a sixth consecutive berth in the NCAA Division III tournament. The Tigers hit the road on Thursday for a match at Thomas More and then return home to close out regular season conference action against Oberlin and Kenyon on Saturday.

October 9, 2001 -

The Wittenberg University Tigers have bigger goals than the NCAC regular season championship in 2001. With four straight NCAC titles under their belts, the Tigers can hardly be blamed for setting their sights higher.

First things first, however, and the Tigers got a scare this weekend. In a tri-match on Saturday at Allegheny College, Wittenberg easily defeated the host Gators in the opening match before being extended to five sets by Denison in a rematch of last year's NCAC tournament finale.

Freshman outside hitter Monica McDonald (Newark, Ohio/Catholic) was outstanding in the two matches, pounding 59 kills, including 36 against Denison. McDonald ranks among the league leaders in kills per game with 4.56 on the season. Also, freshman setter Sarah Yuskewich (Columbus, Ohio/Bishop Watterson) led the team in assists in both matches as she continues to split time with last year's NCAC Player of the Year, junior setter Shelli Habegger (Curtice, Ohio/Oregon Clay).

The Tigers return to action on Wednesday at home against NCAC rival Ohio Wesleyan. The match will be televised three times over the following week on tape delay by Time Warner Cable in the Dayton area. Veteran broadcaster Marty Bannister and former Wittenberg player Laura Mayer will call the match.

Then this weekend, the Tigers host their first Wittenberg National Invitational at the HPER Center. The field includes Thomas More, the 12th-ranked host Tigers, and nationally ranked Juniata, Wisconsin-Whitewater and Mt. St. Joseph, all national quarterfinalists in 2000.

October 2, 2001 -

Wittenberg Head Coach often says she is "crazy" for the schedules she puts together. After finishing second in top-flight tournaments at Mt. St. Joseph and Elmhurst already this season, the Tigers hosted the first of two equally high-quality tournaments last weekend in the HPER Center.

Crazy indeed. If anyone had doubts of Wittenberg's ability to compete on a national level, it was again erased with a fine performance before a boisterous homecoming crowd.

In a tournament that included Case Western Reserve, second-ranked Elmhurst, No. 14 ranked Ohio Northern and Ohio Athletic Conference powers Muskingum and Mt. Union, the 12th-ranked Tigers finished in a three-way tie for first with Ohio Northern and Elmhurst with a 3-1 record. Based on tiebreaker criteria, ONU was awarded the championship, with Elmhurst, which beat Wittenberg for the second time this season in the tourney's final match, taking the runner-up trophy.

There were plenty of bright spots for the host Tigers, particularly the continued brilliant play of junior outside hitter Teresa Murphy (Blacklick, Ohio/Newark Catholic), who had 81 kills and 68 digs in five matches during the week (including an NCAC match last Wednesday against Earlham). She and freshman outside hitter Monica McDonald (Newark, Ohio/Catholic), the team's leader in kills, both were named to the All-Tournament Team.

Next up for the four-time defending NCAC champions is a conference tri-match at Allegheny with Denison. The Gators and Big Red are expected to be Wittenberg's closest pursuers in the race for the 2001 regular season and tournament titles.

September 26, 2001 -

The Tigers played three matches last week, including their first two in the NCAC. After a 3-1 defeat on Friday at Walsh University, an NAIA powerhouse that Wittenberg Head Coach Connie Surowicz built up in her three years there in the early 1990's, the Tigers rallied for two straight-set conference victories on Saturday at Wooster over the host Scots and Hiram.

Wittenberg has another NCAC match on Tuesday at Earlham, an event rescheduled from Sept. 12 due to the national tragedies in New York, Washington, D.C. and Pennsylvania, as a final tune-up before the first of two top-notch tournaments the Tigers will host this season. Case Western Reserve, second-ranked Elmhurst, No. 14 ranked Ohio Northern, Muskingum and Mt. Union join Wittenberg this weekend at the HPER Center. Action starts Friday afternoon and continues Saturday with championship match play.

The Tigers continue to spread the offense around, a year after setter Shelli Habegger (Curtice, Ohio/Oregon Clay) set a school and conference record for assists in a season with a Division III best of 14 per game. Freshman outside hitter Monica McDonald (Newark, Ohio/Catholic) leads the Tigers and is second in the NCAC with 3.68 kills per game, while junior Teresa Murphy (Blacklick, Ohio/Newark Catholic) is second with 3.19 kills per game. Habegger is among the top five in the conference in assists per game with 8.67.

September 26, 2001 -

The Wittenberg volleyball team is off to its typical strong start in 2001, finishing second in each of its first two regular season tournaments before handing Head Coach Connie Surowicz her 200th victory last Friday night in a straight-set home win over Cedarville. Surowicz has 230 wins in 10-plus seasons overall, including three years heading the Walsh University program. Wittenberg's only two losses thus far in 2001 have been to national title contenders Mt. St. Joseph and Elmhurst, both of which hosted their own tournaments and defeated the Tigers in the respective championship games.

The Tigers feature a balanced offensive attack led by junior outside hitter Teresa Murphy (Blacklick, Ohio/Newark Catholic) and her 3.16 kills per game and junior setter Shelli Habegger (Curtice, Ohio/Oregon Clay) and her 8.16 assists per game. Five different players have led the Tigers in kills in a match already this season.

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