Women's Soccer: 2017 Div. III NCAA Tournament: 1st Round - Penn St.-Behrend (15-4-1 Overall) at #14 Ohio Northern (17-1-2 Overall)
Saturday, Nov. 11, 2017, 11:30 am, Kerscher Stadium, Ada, Ohio - 2017 NCAA Div. III Tournament - First Round
| NCAA III Tournament Site | Game Notes (.pdf) |
Saturday's Preview: The No. 14-ranked Polar Bears enter Saturday's contest after earning the Ohio Athletic Conference's automatic bid to the NCAA III Tournament ... Northern will make its fourth appearance in the tournament, returning for the first time since 2012 ... ONU earned the automatic bid after defeating Capital in the OAC Tournament Championship match 2-0, and claiming its second OAC Tournament title in school history ... The Polar Bears also won the OAC Regular Season title after posting an unblemished 9-0-0 record in conference play, marking the first time in school history the Polar Bears won both the Regular Season and OAC Tournament title in school history in the same season ... Northern is 1-3-1 in the NCAA III Tournament since its first appearance in 2009 ... The Polar Bears had nine players named All-Ohio Athletic Conference, in voting conducted by the league's 10 head coaches ... Seniors Hannah Reich and Anna Niemeyer, and sophomores Haley Moses, Rose Nienaber and Meagan Grierson were all named First Team All-OAC, while sophomore Hannah Martin and freshman Jenna Fuller garnered Second Team All-OAC Honors, and senior Mary Kate Munz and freshman Sydney Leshnak were both named Honorable Mention All-OAC ... For the second consecutive season, Grierson was dubbed OAC Goalie of the Year, while Fuller was named OAC Freshman of the Year, Reich earned OAC Defender of the Year, Moses was named OAC Midfielder of the Year and head coach Mark Batman was named OAC Coach of the Year for the second time in his stint at ONU ... Nienaber and Fuller are currently tied for the lead on the team and rank fifth in the OAC with 10 goals each ... Fuller's 11 assists lead the team and OAC ... Fuller and Nienaber rank 1-2 on the team and 3-5 in the OAC with 31 and 25 points, respectively ... The duo are the first pair of ONU teammates to score double digit goals in the same season since the 2011 season ... Fuller's 11 assists ties the freshman record at ONU set in 1997 , while her 10 goals are one shy of cracking the top-10 for a freshman at ONU in a single season ... Grierson currently leads the team in the goal with a 17-1-2 record ... The OAC Goalkeeper of the Year leads the team and OAC in shutouts (11) and goals against average (0.45) and ranks first on the team and second in the OAC in save percentage (.833) and goals allowed (9) ... Her 17 career shutouts rank tied for sixth in school history ... Grierson owns the freshman GAA record at ONU and is on pace to break the sophomore school record ... The Polar Bear defense is currently tied with the school record of 13 shutouts set in 1997 ... Penn St.-Behrend enters the NCAA III Tournament with a 15-4-1 record ... The Lions defeated Franciscan in the Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference Tournament Finals to receive an automatic bid and claim its seventh consecutive AMCC Tournament title ... PSB is making its 10th trip to the NCAA III Tournament including its seventh consecutive trip to the big dance ... The Lions are led offensively this season by senior Jordan Oberlander's 30 goals ... Oberlander currently ranks third nationally in the category ... Senior Olivia Belack currently has a team-best eight assists to lead the Lions ... Senior Ania Gorski currently owns a 15-4-1 record in the goal for PSB and has team-bests in saves (79), save percentage (.790) and GAA (1.03).
ONU Statistical Leaders
| Goals | Assists | Points | Saves | GAA | ||||||||||||||
| 1. | Nienaber | 10 | 1. | Fuller | 11 | 1. | Fuller | 31 | 1. | Grierson | 45 | 1. | Grierson | 0.45 | ||||
| 2. | Fuller | 10 | 2. | Nienaber | 5 | 2. | Nienaber | 25 | 2. | Grisnik | 2.98 | |||||||
| 3. | Niemeyer | 7 | 3. | Moses | 4 | 3. | Niemeyer | 17 | ||||||||||
| Breier | 4 |
Series Record: This is the fourth meeting between the two programs with Northern holding a 3-0-0 lead in the series ... From 2000-2002 the two teams met three times, with ONU winning all three matchups by a combined score of 12-3.
Head Coach Mark Batman: Batman is in his 14th season as head coach with a 183-75-25 career record and a winning percentage of .691 ... Batman is the winningest head coach in Ohio Northern women's soccer history.
