Greencastle, Ind. - Third-seed Wittenberg fought off three match points and captured the North Coast Athletic Conference Tournament with a 3-2 (25-11, 23-25, 21-25, 25-14, 16-14) victory over top-seed DePauw. Wittenberg advances to the NCAA Division III Championship with a 16-13 record, while DePauw finished its season at 16-13.
After dropping the opening set, DePauw came back to take a 2-1 lead before the visiting Tigers evened the match with a fourth-set win.
In the decisive fifth set, Wittenberg grabbed a 4-2 lead and stayed in front until DePauw rattled off four straight points to grab a 9-6 advantage. The teams traded the next four points before Wittenberg scored three straight to even the set at 11-11.
Two kills by
Katie Gansle sandwiched an
Ashley Haas kill and gave the Tigers a 14-11 lead. A DePauw service error sent the serve back to the visitors and they wrapped up the match by winning the final four points.
Wittenberg outhit DePauw, .260-.129, and held a 64-44 edge in kills. Gansle paced DePauw with 14 kills, while
Kendall Herrick had 25 assists. Tyler Linkhart led Wittenberg with 18 kills with Mack Ricketts pacing the squad with 53 assists.
Maria Stevens had four aces for the Tigers, while Gansle added three. Mack Ricketts, Piper Ricketts and Ally White each had two aces for Wittenberg.
Grace Myers led DePauw with 26 digs and
Lauren Ridgway had four blocks. White paced Wittenberg with 31 digs and Kait Colahan had six blocks.
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