SPRINGFIELD, Ohio (November 2, 2023) – For the second season in a row, the Denison University women's soccer team entered the North Coast Athletic Conference Tournament seeded fourth, and for the second year in a row, the Big Red picked up a 1-0 shutout win over the top seed in the tournament in the semifinals as the Big Red traveled to face Wittenberg University and defeated the Tigers on Thursday night at Edwards-Maurer Stadium.

Denison, now 7-4-6 overall, avenges a 2-0 loss at home last week against Wittenberg, which finishes its season at 7-7-5 overall after earning a share of the NCAC regular-season title.

Both goalkeepers, Molly Noga and Lily Winkle, were challenged to make a save in the fourth minute as the two teams began to feel each other out.

Denison had three corner kicks by Callie Davis in the 13th minute, the first of which led to a shot by Eliza Roach that was saved by Winkle before the final corner kick led to a shot by Mara McGlone that resulted in a clear out right on the goal line by a Tigers' defender.

The closest either team came to scoring in the first half came in the 25th minute when the fourth corner kick of the first half by Denison resulted in a shot off the crossbar by Kendall Sierens, and then the rebound saw a shot by Reily Brinley finish with the third save of the first half by Winkle.

Denison hit the crossbar again in the 37th minute as a shot by Kate Dalimonte was just outside of the reach of Winkle.

It was a competitive first half with Denison outshooting Wittenberg 9-6 overall but just 3-2 on goal, and then the Big Red come out early in the second half looking to challenge Winkle with a long shot by Roach resulting in another save in the opening minute.

A mistake by Winkle nearly cost her on a shot by Ellie Reiser in the 60th minute, but she was able to recover and make the save again.

After a handball by the Tigers, Davis set up for a free kick from just over 20 yards out and missed just high and right as she aimed for the top, right corner.

The second half was all Denison, which seemed to be on the attack for the majority of the time and took advantage of a numbers edge on a runout in the 70th minute as nice passing by Davis set up an assist for Reiser and a goal by Sierens.

Wittenberg's first shot of the second half went wide in the 76th minute as the Denison defense did a great job of silencing the Tigers' attack over the final 45 minutes.

The Tigers tried to throw everything they could at Denison in the waning minutes, but Noga and the Big Red were able to withstand four shots in the final five minutes of the match.

In the end, Winkle had eight saves for the Tigers while Davis led the Big Red with five total shot attempts and Brinley and Sierens both had three.

Denison secured its 11th berth in the championship match of the NCAC Tournament and will be seeking its fifth tournament championship and first under the direction of first-year head coach Sarah Brink.

The NCAC Tournament Championship match between Denison and third-seeded DePauw University will kick off starting at 1 p.m. on Sunday, November 5. DePauw defeated second-seeded Ohio Wesleyan University University 1-0 in the other semifinal matchup on Thursday.