News-Letter

Media Credit: Shiv Gandhi [Click to enlarge]

Throughout its season, the Hopkins women's basketball team has not had the best of luck, losing a significant number of close games in the final minutes. Still, the basketball gods saved their worst curse for the team's last weekend of its 2006-2007 campaign.

Although the team was victorious Saturday against Franklin & Marshall, the team was nevertheless eliminated from considerations for the Centennial Conference playoff tournament. 

Practicing this past week with the knowledge that they had to win in order to keep their postseason dreams alive, the Lady Jays traveled to Lancaster, Pa., where they defeated Franklin & Marshall, 59-50, in a closely contested game.  

Hopkins jumped out to a very big lead early in the first half, leading by as many as 16 points and was still able to hold a double-digit lead, at 11, when the first half came to a close. The defense led the way for the team in the half, as the Lady Jays managed to hold the Diplomats to only 21 points, shooting a meager 31.8 percent from the field.  

However, F&M showed new life early on in the second half and by its midpoint was winning 42-41. F&M refused to go away until the game's final two minutes, when co-captain senior forward Julie Miller hit a three-pointer giving the Lady Jays a seven-point lead. This decisive basket all but assured the team of victory. 

"Even though they continued to play tough defense against us, our guards really showed great composure against their pressure," junior forward Andrea Dodrill said. "Also, our three seniors played really tough in the last few minutes of the game, which really clinched the win." 

"[We] seniors knew it could potentially be our last game," co-captain senior guard Haley Wojdowski said. "So we were going to leave everything we had on the court, and we did." 

Although the offense and defense may not have been perfect, particularly toward the first part of the second half, Hopkins was able to put together a number of lengthy stretches in which it demonstrated that things finally had come together. 

Dodrill led the team both in points and rebounds, scoring 18 on 8 of 13 shooting and grabbing 13 boards -- six of which were on the offensive glass -- for the Lady Jays. It was another double-double for Dodrill, who was one of the team's most consistent and productive players this season. Miller had 10 points and was the only other Lady Jays' player in double figures. 

Dodrill also led the team in turnover production, as she had four of the team's nine blocked shots. Overall, Hopkins forced 20 turnovers, helping to create relatively easy fast-break opportunities against an F&M defense that was causing trouble, particularly in the second half. 

The win put Hopkins at 12-6 in the conference and in a four-way tie for third place with Muhlenberg, Ursinus and Gettysburg. Three spots were available for those four teams in a five-team tournament. Due to a complex series of tiebreakers, Hopkins was the odd team out and was the only one of the four teams to end its season without making it to the postseason. 

The key tiebreakers were the four tied teams' records against one another. Hopkins went 0-2 against Muhlenberg and 0-1 against Gettysburg. They split against Ursinus, so another tiebreaker--the two teams' records against common opponents--was considered, and Ursinus fared slightly better. In the end, even having the conference's only win against McDaniel (in first place and ranked 19th in Division III) was meaningless and had no effect on the team's shot at making the tournament. 

In other words, Lady Luck was just not on the Lady Jays' side. When the players were informed of the news, many were devastated. 

"It was really, really horrible to hear we weren't going," Wojdowski said. "At that point, we were helpless." 

Wojdowski was one of three seniors -- all co-captains -- for whom the F&M win was their last game wearing a Blue Jays jersey. All three were key contributors this season, and their veteran leadership will be sorely missed. 

"We lose so much next year without Haley, Julie, and Whitney [Davis]," Dodrill said. 

With a valuable scorer and leader in Dodrill returning next season and the leadership of Coach Nancy Funk, who won her 500th career game only two weeks ago, the players are confident that the good, instead of the bad, kind of luck will show up on the court in 2008.

"Next year we will be better because we'll have more experience," sophomore guard Jonay Foster said. "We have the talent, and there should be no reason why we shouldn't win."

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