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| First-year coach John Ross led
the Knights to a conference championship. |
After a five-year absence, the MIAA regular-season championship trophy
in women’s basketball returned to Calvin College.
In an amazing turnaround, Calvin captured the 2004 MIAA regular season
title, with a 13-1 conference record, winning the league championship
outright, one game ahead of four-time defending champion Hope. Calvin’s
13 conference wins marked a seven-game improvement over its 6-8 conference
record of 2002-2003.
It was also just one victory shy of matching the MIAA single-season record
for conference victories in women’s basketball.
Heading into the final regular season game, Calvin and Hope were locked
in a tie for first place, with 12-1 conference records.
A Calvin victory at Adrian and a Hope win at Albion would have resulted
in an MIAA co-title between the two rivals and would have given Hope an
unprecedented fifth-straight league crown.
The tie was broken on the final day, however, as Calvin held off Adrian
81-72, while Hope fell at Albion 62-52, giving Calvin its first MIAA title
since the 1998-1999 season, and its first outright crown since the 1997-1998
season.
The outright title created a joyful bus ride all the way home, according
to first-year head coach John Ross. “The players were chanting ‘conference
champions’ nearly the entire ride home,” said Ross, who came
to Calvin this past fall after serving as the assistant men’s basketball
coach at Earlham College. “They definitely felt good about the accomplishment.”
The Knights certainly had reason to feel good, as the conference crown
was the 10th in Calvin women’s basketball history—more than
any other MIAA school.
Back in November, it hardly appeared that Calvin would contend for the
league crown, as it dropped three of its opening five games, including
a 78-61 conference defeat to Hope on November 25 at the Calvin Fieldhouse.
“We had a few bumps in the road early in the season because the
players had to adjust to a new system and a new coach,” said Ross.
“Once they started to pick up what we wanted to do with our offensive
and defensive schemes, the team really began to gel.”
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| Sophomore Linda Heilman drives past a defender. |
On December 6, the Knights trounced Illinois College 91-60 in the consolation
game of a tournament hosted by St. Mary’s (Ind.) College. The victory
kicked off a memorable 21-game win streak, which was finally snapped in
the MIAA tournament finals by Albion in a heartbreaking 49-45 defeat in
front of a large home crowd at Calvin. The loss to Albion denied Calvin
an automatic bid to the NCAA III tournament, and when the tournament field
was announced the following evening, the Knights did not receive one of
the few at-large berths.
“It was frustrating because I felt we were definitely one of the
top 25 teams in the nation by the end of the season,” said Ross,
who was named MIAA Women’s Basketball Coach of the Year, becoming
the first coach at Calvin to receive the award. “At the same time,
I don’t think it diminishes anything that we accomplished this year.”
Among the more impressive accomplishments was Calvin’s league-leading
defensive scoring average. The Knights limited opponents to just 53.8
points per game in conference play.
“Coaches like to say that ‘defense wins championships,’”
said Ross. “I’d like to think that was also true with our
team this year.”
With several letter winners returning for the 2004-2005 season, the
future appears bright for the Calvin women’s basketball team. “We’ve
got a number of strong players returning next year, and we hope to add
a few newcomers who can help us out,” said Ross. “I think
next year could be another good season.”
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