A Tough Road, A Hopeful Ending

March 10

I apologize for how long it’s been since I’ve last written. Liberty League play tends to consume the majority of our time and it seemed particularly hectic this year.

Looking at our league record you would get the completely wrong picture of how the end of our season went. We began league play with some close games that we just couldn’t turn into wins, including close losses to William Smith, Skidmore, Clarkson and eventual Liberty League tournament champion Saint Lawrence. Things really started to come together for us as freshman Brittany Parks broke out as a scoring sensation while Emily Haeuser continued her stellar Vassar career both in scoring and on the boards. Freshman forward Kristyn Tempora also showed her numerous skills with some breakout games and clutch shots. With three legitimate scoring threats and the likes of Jenica Law and Sarah Warner stepping into their roles on the defensive end and myself, Brianna Brazell and Emilie Haft starting to hit some shots as well as Eleanor Albert contributing offensively and on the boards, it looked like things were really coming together for us.

Unfortunately, we hit some bumps along the way and hit a bit of a slump toward the end of the season. Losing takes a toll on teams no matter what, even if you are playing well, and we began to let it wear us down. We slipped up in our last home weekend against Skidmore and Union and continued to play below our expectations at RPI the following Tuesday. We headed into our last weekend of the season – a six-hour trip up to Saint Lawrence and Clarkson – with two options. We could finish off the season playing below our potential and just tack on two more losses to our record, or we could start playing with the desire and focus that we had in the beginning of League play. After a long team talk, we all made it clear that the latter option was our choice.

We faced Saint Lawrence first, and although we lost by a considerable margin, we played much better as a unit. Our team defense was greatly improved and we were communicating and working together. Our turnovers plagued us as well as the inability to hit shots. But we woke up the next morning knowing we should beat Clarkson. Before the game even started we believed it was our game for the taking. Tied at the half, Clarkson built a lead as large as nine points early in the second period, but we slowly chipped away at it and were able to tie the game with less than six seconds left as Jenica Law hit a runner in the lane to send us into overtime. With our leader, Emily Haeuser, fouled out, everyone else on the team stepped up. Foul trouble again hurt us in overtime, with Eleanor Albert and Brianna Brazell fouling out as well, leaving our bench close to empty. We were able to lock down on defense in the last possession in overtime, and prevailed in the second overtime thanks to big shots from Brittany Parks, Kristyn Tempora, myself and again Jenica Law.

The atmosphere was incredible. It was their senior day and their home court, but we were able to win by playing great team defense and hitting big shots when we needed them. When the buzzer sounded, I ran to Britt and grabbed her with excitement. We found the rest of our team in the middle of the court and celebrated a victory that can set the tone for what is to come from this program. It was a long trip home but we couldn’t have ended our season in a better way.

While the win provided a lot of inspiration to work hard in the offseason, so did all the losses. We are too talented to have another losing record next year. We have scorers, defenders, and a lot of experience on this roster now. We will not be losing any players next year (although we will miss our student assistant coach, Shannon Fuhr) and we will surely benefit from a talented freshmen class. We definitely have the pieces to put together a better record next year and with some experienced leaders working hard this offseason, I feel confident that we will.