Setting the Scene:
The Wittenberg University women's basketball team put together perhaps its finest season ever in 2003-04, finishing with a 25-6 overall record, including the fourth perfect 16-0 record in North Coast Athletic Conference play in school and conference history. The Tigers won 21 straight games between a 76-62 loss to Thomas More on Dec. 20 and a season-ending 68-51 defeat against Scranton on March 12 in the NCAA Division III Round of 16 at Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine.
The season started relatively slowly for the Tigers, who dropped two of their first three games and five of their first nine while playing a brutally difficult nonconference schedule. All five of their regular season nonconference defeats were against teams that finished the season ranked among the top 25 in the nation, according to d3hoops.com.
The season turned around with a 66-58 home win over Wilmington, a team that went on to shock the small college women's basketball world by winning the national title. From that point on, the Tigers were nearly invincible, running the table in the NCAC for the second straight year, sweeping three straight games in the conference tournament and then winning the first two national tournament games in school history over Penn St.-Behrend and Messiah.
Individual Honors:
The story of the season, from an individual standpoint, was senior forward Haley Warden (Loveland, Ohio/Indian Hill). Warden did it all for the Tigers as she emerged as the team's leader and unquestioned go-to player.
Warden earned first-team All-North Coast Athletic Conference honors for the first time in her career and NCAC Player of the Year as well. She led the Tigers in scoring (14.0 points per game), rebounding (9.8per game), minutes (28.6), assists (66), steals (70) and three-point field goals (29). Testament to the team-first style of Wittenberg women's basketball, Warden was Wittenberg's first NCAC Player of the Year ever.
Pam Smith was voted Coach of the Year for the third consecutive year after she guided her squad to their third straight regular-season crown and 10th overall. She was the NCAC Coach of the Year for the sixth time.
Warden was joined on the All-NCAC honor roll by senior guard Amber Bishop (Batavia, Ohio/Batavia) and senior Geri Woessner (Dayton, Ohio/Oakwood), both of whom earned their first such accolades. Bishop was named to the second team after ranking second on the team in scoring, assists, minutes and three-point field goals. Woessner claimed honorable mention honors after ranking second on the team in rebounds and among the team leaders in steals, blocked shots and points as well. She was also All-NCAC in 2003-04 in soccer and track and field as well.
Warden was also the NCAC Tournament Most Valuable Player. She was joined on the all-tournament team by Bishop and Woessner.
Super Seniors:
A year after the Tigers graduated five seniors, including four starters, Wittenberg hardly skipped a beat. The task will be much the same in 2004-05 as the program must recover from the loss of four more senior starters and five of the 10 players in the rotation throughout the campaign.
Warden, Bishop and Woessner led the senior class, but they won't be the only ones leaving gaping holes to be filled. The point guard tandem of two-year starter and four-year letterwinner Christina Fischer (Norwood, Ohio/St. Ursula) and two-year letterwinner Kari Kitchen (South Charleston, Ohio/Southeastern) took care of the majority of the ballhandling duties in 2003-04. They combined for 81 assists and 85 turnovers, and both ranked among the team leaders in steals.
As a class, the seniors depart with a sparkling four-year record of 88-25, including an NCAC regular season record of 57-7. Wittenberg ended the 2003-04 season on a 36-game NCAC regular season win streak, dating back to the 2001-02 season. The senior class won three NCAC regular season titles, two NCAC tournament crowns and won the first two NCAA Division III Tournament games in school history in 2003-04.
Geri Woessner
A Bright Future:
A year ago, observers wondered who would take on the leadership mantle and pick up where one of the most successful seniors classes left off. The answers, in hindsight, were obvious, and hopefully by this time next year they will be again.
With five seniors departing the program, the logical place to start in seeking out replacements is next year's senior class. But that group numbers just two - guards Alison Nahrup (Loveland, Ohio/Mount Notre Dame) and Emilie Schmid (Canton, Ohio/Massillon Jackson). Nahrup started 20 games in 2003-04 and is a strong defensive presence. Schmid appeared in 27 games off the bench (after missing the first four due to volleyball season), and she ranked fourth on the team in scoring at 7.3 points per game.
The juniors-to-be in 2004-05 are point guard Brittany Landreth (Valparaiso, Ind./Valparaiso), forward Joyce Dindo (Akron, Ohio/Walsh Jesuit) and guard Carrie Jones (Greenville, Ohio/Greenville). Jones was the only one from that group that appeared in every game in 2003-04, but all three were important pieces to the season's championship puzzle and figure prominently in the program's future.
The strength of the program appears to be a potentially outstanding freshman class. Forwards Kathy Hittle (Noblesville, Ind./Noblesville), Rachel Clark-Haggy (South Charleston, Ohio/Southeastern) and Denita Braziel (Springfield, Va./Springfield) and guards Megan Miller (Lancaster, Ohio/Lancaster) and Andrea Hackett (Springfield, Ohio/Catholic Central) all earned letters in 2003-04. All five showed flashes of high-quality play in their inaugural collegiate campaign, and all will get even more chances in the coming years.
The Coach:
Head Coach Pam Smith (Wittenberg, 1982) completed her 18th season at the helm of the women's basketball program at her alma mater. She is 350-140 in her career. The 25-6 finish of this year's women's basketball team marks the 15th consecutive winning season under Smith's tutelage.
Smith has guided the Tigers to twelve 20-win seasons, eight appearances in the NCAA tournament and 10 NCAC regular season championships since 1986. Wittenberg has never finished lower than third in an NCAC regular season since joining the league in 1989.
A 1999 Wittenberg Athletics Hall of Honor inductee, Smith was a record-setting forward at Wittenberg during her playing days, a three-time team Most Valuable Player and an Academic All-America selection. The school record-holder for season scoring average, she also serves as the university's associate athletics director and senior women's administrator.