Women’s Soccer: Ohio Northern (12-4-3 Overall) at Otterbein (15-2-0 Overall) – OAC Tournament Finals
Saturday, November 6, 2021, 2 p.m. — Memorial Stadium, Westerville, Ohio
Saturday's Preview: Saturday's Ohio Athletic Conference Tournament championship match pits No. 2 seed Ohio Northern against No. 1 seed Otterbein in what marks the fourth consecutive title game between the two schools … The winner earns an automatic bid to the NCAA Championships ... In its 24 tournament appearances, ONU has an overall record of 20-21-1 … The Polar Bears are making their seventh straight and 16th overall appearance in the tournament finals … ONU is seeking its fourth OAC Tournament championship after winning titles in 2012, 2017 and 2019 … Northern fell 1-0 to Otterbein in last season's tournament finals but handed the Cardinals their only regular-season conference loss this season, 2-0 on Oct. 27 … The Polar Bears got goals from sophomore Kylie Cabana and junior Cienna Kuhn in that game with senior goalkeeper Kristy Catrine making 4 saves in the shutout … Northern is coming off Thursday's thrilling 2-1 double-overtime win at home over third-seeded Capital in the OAC semifinals … Junior Lauren Naso put ONU up 1-0 late in the first half and provided the game-winning goal with 2:54 left in the second overtime period after Capital tied the score in the second half … ONU has outscored its opponents 28-13 this season and has registered 12 shutouts … Sophomores Jill Roberts and Alaina Casey lead the team with 5 goals each and have 13 and 12 points, respectively … Freshman Emma Bowman leads the team in assists with 4, which is tied for eighth in the OAC … Catrine has an OAC-high 11 shutouts and ranks second in the conference in save percentage (.819) and GAA (0.67) and third in goals against (13) while tallying 59 saves on the season … Catrine's 11 shutouts are tied for fifth-most in a season in program history … Catrine is tied with Emily Brodict ('12-'16) for sixth place all-time at ONU in career shutouts with 19 and needs 1 more to tie Erin Waehner ('09-'12) for fifth place … Catrine's current GAA is sixth-best all-time at ONU, and her 0.09 GAA from the 2020 season is tops in program history … Otterbein, the tournament's defending champion, enters Saturday's match coming off a 2-0 home win over No. 5 seed Baldwin Wallace in Thursday's semifinals … The Cardinals got goals from senior Delaney Earl and sophomore Morgan Somers in their 11th shutout of the season and sixth in their last seven games … Earl's goal marked the 50th of her career … OU is making its fourth consecutive appearance in the OAC Tournament finals and owns 11 tournament championships … Earl is tied for the OAC lead in points (38) and ranks second in goals (16), tied for second in assists (6) and fourth in shots (76) … Junior Grace Weidenhamer is tied for the OAC lead with 7 assists … Senior goalkeeper Alaina Reher leads the OAC in goals against (7) and GAA (0.47).
ONU Statistical Leaders:
| Goals | Assists | Points | Saves | GAA | ||||||||||||||
| 1. | Roberts | 5 | 1. | Bowman | 4 | 1. | Roberts | 13 | 1. | Catrine | 59 | 1. | Moss | 0.00 | ||||
| Casey | 5 | 2. | Roberts | 3 | 2. | Casey | 12 | 2. | Moss | 1 | 2. | Catrine | 0.67 | |||||
| 3. | Beckett | 4 | Cabana | 3 | 3. | Beckett | 10 |
Series Record: Ohio Northern leads the all-time series with Otterbein by a 21-18-3 margin, including 11-12-1 in Westerville and 2-5-1 in the OAC Tournament … The teams' last meeting was a 2-0 ONU home win on Oct. 27 … ONU and OU met in the 2020 OAC Tournament championship game in April with the Cardinals getting a 1-0 home win.
Head Coach Mark Batman: Batman is in his 18th season with the ONU women's soccer program … He is the winningest head coach in program history with an overall coaching record of 237-88-35, a .691 win percentage.