Trinity Women's Hoops Returns To NESCAC Tourney With Highest-Ever Seed
Hartford, Conn., Feb. 19, 2009 - The Trinity College women's basketball team, which posted its best regular season record since 1999-00 at 16-7 and finished tied with Wesleyan and Colby for fifth in the New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) at 4-5, will visit the Bates College Bobcats in the quarterfinal round of the NESCAC Championship Tournament on Saturday, Feb. 21 at 3 p.m. The Bantams, coached by Wendy Davis (4th Season), closed the season with a 75-70 win on the road at NESCAC rival Williams on Saturday to snap a five-game losing skid. Tickets will cost $3 for adults and $1 for students and the game will also be viewable on the Internet live and free of charge at http://www.batescast.com
Trinity is returning to the league tournament, after missing the post-season last year, for the fourth time in the last five years and for the sixth time overall. The winner of the NESCAC Championship Tournament will determine the league's automatic qualifier for the NCAA Division III Championship Tournament. Trinity is the No. 5 seed, its highest seed in its six years in the tournament, and Bates (16-8, 5-4) is seeded No. 4. Top-seeded Bowdoin (20-4, 8-1) plays No. 8-seeded Williams (8-16, 3-6) and No. 2-seeded Amherst (23-1, 8-1) hosts No. 7-seeded Colby (13-11, 4-5). No. 3-seeded Tufts (20-3, 7-2) hosts No. 6-seeded Wesleyan (12-10, 4-5) in the other first round games this Saturday. The highest remaining seed after the quarterfinal round will host the semifinal and final rounds on Feb. 28 and March 1. The Bantams, who have yet to win a NESCAC post-season game, lost at Bates, 77-59, in 2002 in the only previous NESCAC Tournament game between the two schools.
Trinity got off to its best start since 1996-97 at 11-0 and boasted a 15-2 mark before dropping five straight heading into the final game of the regular season at Williams. The Bantams rank third in the NESCAC defensively with 54.4 points allowed per game. Junior co-captain guard Claire Arnstein (Hicksville, N.Y.) leads the Bantams in scoring at 12.0 ppg (11th in NESCAC) and adds 4.5 rebounds, 3.26 assists (75, 9th in NESCAC) and 2.22 steals (51, 5th in NESCAC) per contest. Classmate Christine Card (Waterbury, Conn.) has been a force in the paint all year, hitting 43 percent of her shots for a 9.3 ppg scoring average, grabbing a team-high 7.3 rebounds (4th in NESCAC), and collecting 1.17 blocks (277, 5th in NESCAC) per game. Freshman guard Michelle Royals (Torrington, Conn.) has made an immediate impact as a rookie, scoring 11.2 ppg (15th in NESCAC) with 3.4 rebounds per game and 31 steals, while sophomore F/C Molly McGlynn (Sleepy Hollow, N.Y.) averages 6.2 points and 5.5 boards per game.
The Bates Bobcats run an extremely efficient offense, hitting 43 percent of their shots from the floor. Bates has made it to the NESCAC Championship game in four of the last six seasons. Senior Val Beckwith (Woburn, Mass.) leads the team in scoring at 18.3 ppg, while sophomore Lauren Yanofsky (Belmont, Mass.) averages 12.4 ppg and has 30 blocks and 38 steals. Freshman Annie Burns (Topsfield, Mass.) is having an excellent rookie campaign for the Bobcats, putting up averages of 5.5 points and 3.8 rebounds to go on top of 121 assists and 47 steals.
