The Observer, December 1, 2006
Volume XXXIX, Issue 12
Lady Spartans continue strong start with win over Johns Hopkins
The Case women's basketball team is off to a strong start this year, winning three of its first four games. The only loss came at the hands of Baldwin-Wallace, which is ranked tenth nationally in the most recent d3hoops.com poll.
After winning the Mount St. Joseph Tip-Off Tournament, the Spartans handed Johns Hopkins University its first loss of the season, 67-53, last Sunday. Leading the way in the win was freshman guard Ashleigh Tondo, who scored a team-high 12 points, and sophomore forward Colleen Martin, who added 10 points and eight rebounds off the bench. "This was a great win for us," junior guard Mary Herendeen said. "Johns Hopkins was 22-6 last year and is picked to win their conference this year. It was a great team effort to pull this one out. Beating Hopkins is a great confidence booster for us."
Herendeen also added that the Spartans played great defense throughout the game, forcing 18 turnovers in the first half alone, which created some great scoring opportunities for the offense. The game was neck-and-neck for the first 15 minutes until the Spartans opened the throttle and went on an 11-2 run in the final minutes to go into halftime up 34-25. Case was able to maintain that cushion in the final 20 minutes of the game as Hopkins was unable to recover from the Spartan scoring run.
The speedy development of the team's freshman class has been integral to the early success this year for the Lady Spartans.
"With such a big recruiting class this year, we spent the majority of the preseason simply getting used to playing together," said Herendeen. "We were constantly changing line-ups and styles of play to see who worked best with whom and in what sort of system. At this point, I think we all feel comfortable playing together, and we are excited about the potential we have for the rest of the season."
As evidenced by their performance, this year's class of freshmen has yet to show any significant signs of inexperience. The transition from high school to college basketball can be a difficult one. However, due to guidance from the team's leaders and coaching staff, the five freshmen on the roster have made the change with ease.
"Our freshmen this year are extremely hard workers," Herendeen said. "They come in everyday and work extremely hard to not only push the upperclass players and make them better, but to legitimately challenge them for a majority of the playing time."
Quick development of inexperienced players is a necessity when playing the level of competition that the Spartans face this year. Once the Lady Spartans hit their conference schedule, they will need to be firing on all cylinders to have any shot of defeating their nationally ranked conference opponents. After four games, they appear to be on the right track.
The team next plays at home on Saturday at 6 p.m. against Grove City College.
