The past weekend marked an impressive showing at home for the Wittenberg women’s soccer team. After starting off the season 0-2 with losses to nationally ranked Messiah and Moravian, the tigers strike back, sinking their teeth into three opponents in a row.
The sweep began building momentum after a gregarious win over the likes of Wilmington College in a 4-0 blowout. Kailey Striebel led the team with 2 goals and 2 assists in the match but she didn’t stop just there. As the competition grew with opponent Adrian College, Striebel struck again along with her senior sisters Taylor Goss and Sheryl Chambers, who added two more goals to the books. The Tigers walked away with an impressive 3-1 victory over Adrian before marching back into battle on Sunday with the Illinois Wesleyan Titans, a very defensive-minded squad who just came off a win over NCAC rival Denison.
The game showed to be a stagnant battle of defensive holdouts. At halftime,
with the score tied 0-0, there was only 2 shots on goal from either side and by the end of regular time, not much had changed—the tigers would go into overtime. With the clock winding down a tied match seemed to be in the cards, but once again Striebel strikes from the high grass with a goal six minutes and forty seconds into overtime, beating the keeper one on one with a shot in the top left corner. An impressive and nail-biting end to a weekend that marked the beginning of a winning streak; the hopes continue into the following weeks as they face hard inter-league play.
Kailey Striebel, '13, darts for the goal. (Photo courtesy of Wittenberg University Communications)
Ericka Rick, 15', fights for the ball. (Photo courtesy of Wittenberg University Communications)
Laurean McMahon, 13', heads the ball. (Photo courtesy of Wittenberg University Communications)
(Mike Caligaris, s12.mcaligaris@exchange.wittenberg.edu)
