Despite playoff disappointment, women's hoops season a success

Last season the women's basketball team finished 9-14 (1-8 NESCAC) under coach Janice Savitz. However, this season, the team smoked much of the non-conference competition and won three more conference games than in 2001-2002 to finish 17-7 (4-5 NESCAC) under first year coach Carla Berube. Unfortunately, the team's season came to an abrupt conclusion last Saturday at Bates with an 80-59 loss to the Bobcats in first round NESCAC tournament play.

A man once said success is measured in championships. But for this season's squad, a championship was not needed for success. Winning eight more games than the previous season is a clear improvement.

"This season was amazing," junior guard Maritsa Christoudias said. "We were successful because we were able to put together a handful of uncertainties into a great team, and our record is just a byproduct of that."

The team was able to win with a much younger team than last season. 2001-2002's squad had two seniors on its roster. Captain Hillary Dunn was the only senior on this year's team. Also, one of last year's top scorers (Jayme Busnengo) graduated, and seniors Emily Goodman and Erin Harrington chose not to return to the team this season. With that, the team was forced to rebuild under a first year coach and a young roster. They boasted two freshmen, Julia Verplank and Jessica Powers, who get substantial playing time.

"As for the freshmen, they did a great job this year," Christoudias said. "They all stepped into big roles and played their hearts out. They brought the water in everyday, but other than that, we didn't look at them as 'freshmen' when we were on the court. They were great for team chemistry and brought a lot of talent to this team."

Christoudias also believes this season was a success because the team adjusted to many new lineups, a new coach, and new players. This led to uncertainty as to what to expect from a team that did not even make the NESCAC playoffs last season.

"We didn't look as far off into the schedule this season," Christoudias said. "We tried to just take one game at a time, and depended on all our work falling into place by the end of the season."

This season started off on the wrong foot as the squad dropped its first non-conference game 61-49 against RPI at the MIT Tip-Off Classic. With the ghosts of last season lurking, Christoudias still believed the team would do well this season.

"Obviously it was hard to start the season with a loss," Christoudias said. "But we had a lot to put together in very little time. That game was more of a test than a forecast of the season. But looking back we learned to play together very quickly, and if we were to play RPI again I know the outcome would be different."

The RPI game proved almost flukish, as no other non-conference team defeated Tufts for the rest of the season. After the defeat, the squad knocked down a team record: beating nine opponents in a row. The Jumbos won many of those contests easily, but had some close calls against MIT (61-56 OT W), Wellesley (56-51 W), and Smith (60-57 W). The Jumbos started off their NESCAC season on the softer side of life against Connecticut College, who ended up last in the NESCAC this season. The Jumbos handled the Camels, 86-56.

After winning nine in a row, the team knew it was going to have a tough time with Wesleyan, who defeated Tufts 65-60 the previous season. The Jumbos controlled the game for 39 minutes, but in the last minute the Cardinals mounted a run to force the game into overtime. In the extra period, Wesleyan triumphed by three points, 79-76.

"We knew it was going to be a good game, and never doubted that if we played our game we could beat them," Christoudias said. "That game could have gone either way, we just ran out of time."

The Wesleyan game was symbolic for the season, as the Jumbos controlled many games into the final minutes. Some they won and others they lost. The team played well at home with a 10-2 record in Cousens Gym which included a huge 66-59 win over Bates, who was seeded third in the NESCAC tournament. On the flip side, they had some spotty play on the road as they went 6-4 including a disappointing 63-40 loss at Amherst, who finished ninth in the conference.

"Amherst played their best game and we played our worst game that day, but also playing at home is a huge advantage for us," Christoudias said.

Towards the end of the season, the Jumbos won games they were supposed to win and lost those in which they were underdogs. Non-conference teams such as Clark and Lasell posed little competition, but league opponents such as Colby and Bowdoin overmatched the squad.

On the last weekend of regular season play, the Jumbos had two character building games. The team beat Middlebury 69-58 for the first time since the two teams started playing each other on a seasonal basis in 1993. On the downside, the Jumbos fell to Williams 69-61 after being up by 16 points with 18 minutes left in the contest.

Nevertheless, the Jumbos made the playoffs, unlike last season. The team only loses one senior, Dunn, after this year. No two seasons are exactly similar, but with a core of solid players returning next season, the women's basketball program should be on the up and up.

"Well we're gonna miss Hill [Dunn] a lot," Christoudias said. "She was our lone senior and did a lot for this team, but the rest of us are young. With the experience of this season I'm sure we will be ready to step it up even more, but we don't know what our team will be until next year. Meanwhile we can bask in what we did this season."