I might get written up at work...should I defend myself?

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I work as a cashier at a grocery store. Let me start by saying that I've been doing this job for 9 months now. I've also regularly worked a cash register at a restaurant for over five years. And I never once had a discrepancy (at least not one significant enough for a manager to say something to me). I know how to count money, and I'd never steal. And after working with the public and working on a register for so long, I have learned to manage my stress well, even though it was hard for me at first. I know I've made mistakes, and I won't say that I could never possibly make a mistake with money. But in this case, I feel like it is so unlikely that I did anything wrong. Basically, the till on the register I had been on for my whole shift came up almost $100 short. I seriously have no idea how. But I wasn't the only cashier who used it. Another cashier did (fairly briefly) use the same register after I left. The team leader of the customer service department talked to both me and the other girl the day after it happened, and just asked us if we could remember any customer who acted funny or seemed like they might have been trying to short change us. I definitely never had a customer like that, and the other girl didn't remember one either.

So, the team leader was just asking us those questions, but she's not going to be the one to truly "investigate" and decide what should happen to whoever might have made the error. The department manager will, and she wasn't there the last two days that I worked. But she did tell me that the worst thing that might happen is that both me and the other girl could get a counseling statement (in other words, a write-up). So, at least I've been assured that I won't be fired, suspended, or demoted to a bagger (those were my fears). But I still think it's BS to write us both up because they can't prove what happened or who made the error. I'm 99.9% sure that I didn't, and I feel like either the other girl was distracted (I don't think she'd deliberately steal, but she's one of those super chatty people who gets into deep conversations with customers sometimes, so I could see her being distracted and making a mistake giving change back to a customer), or maybe the cash office person counting the till made an error. My mom worked at this same company back in the 80s, and she said that back then, each cashier had their very own till that ONLY they used. If they moved to a different register, they took their till with them. When they went on break or went home for the day, they turned the till in to the manager so no one else used it. But now, at my store, they just leave the same till in the same register all day, and sometimes, two or even three different people might use it in a day. And they have no way to really prove who made an error when something like this happens. I don't know why we don't just do it the way they did when my mom worked for them.

I am assuming that I'll have to face my manager tomorrow, and that if the other girl and I are going to get written up, it will happen tomorrow. Again, I just feel like this is completely unfair. I know getting a counseling statement isn't the end of the world, but I still don't want that on my record when I'm so sure I didn't do anything wrong. At the same time, I'm so passive and I don't know how to stand up for myself. Should I try to defend myself? If so, what do I say to her? This manager is also fairly new to my store. Our old customer service manager liked me, and she gave me two really good evaluations. We actually heard some horror stories about this new manager and how strict she is before she arrived, but so far, she's been okay and has seemed fine with me. She's consistently given me lots of hours, which makes me think she thinks I do a good job. But I feel like I'm still kind of having to "prove" myself to her.