The Student News Site of Ashland University

The Collegian

The Student News Site of Ashland University

The Collegian

The Student News Site of Ashland University

The Collegian

The Eagles celebrate a Midwest Regional Championship on Monday, March 13.

LIVE: AU women’s basketball travels to Elite Eight & Final Four

Cade Cracas, Ethan Jenkins and Brynn Meisse, Sports and Features Editors March 17, 2023

The Ashland University women’s basketball team has had itself an exciting 2022-2023 season. On top of the team’s undefeated season, a Great Midwest Athletic Conference Championship and a Midwest Regional...

Furious comeback takes Eagles through to the Final Four

By Chris Bils March 27, 2013

It just felt like nothing could go right for Ashland in the first half of Tuesday’s Elite Eight game against Gannon. Shots were not falling, easy passes were slipping into opposing hands and back-to-back...

Sue Ramsey and Cleve Wright have coached against each other since Gannon was in the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference. The Golden Knights left in 2008.

Ashland ready to face familiar foe in Elite Eight

By Chris Bils March 26, 2013

Ashland head coach Sue Ramsey and Gannon head coach Cleve Wright have known each other for a while. The two used to battle twice a year when Gannon was in the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference....

Memorable Moments: March 20 vs. Alaska-Anchorage and March 21 vs. Bentley

Memorable Moments: March 20 vs. Alaska-Anchorage and March 21 vs. Bentley

By Chris Bils March 23, 2012

The 2011-12 Ashland women’s basketball season has been one to remember. The team has won 33 straight games and will play for the national championship 8 p.m. tonight in San Antonio. Over the last three weeks, the Eagles hosted and won the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference and NCAA Midwest Regional tournaments for the first time ever.

These are games that should be savored and remembered by everyone in the Ashland community. Remember the great plays. Remember the high fives. Remember the milestones. Most of all, savor the moments that have made this team so much fun to watch.

There were so many big moments that led to Ashland’s 71-51 victory over Alaska-Anchorage Tuesday in the Elite Eight in San Antonio.

After a back-and-forth, Kaci Finfrock came in and drained a 3-pointer with 9:50 left in the first half that sparked a 14-5 AU run going into halftime. After the Eagles had their lead cut to three (43-40 with 11:50 remaining), Lindsay Tenyak hit a huge “3” to push it back to six. That sparked a 19-2 run that put the game out of reach.

Tenyak finished five of six from deep and had 17 points. Jena Stutzman finished six of 11 from the field and led the team with 18 points. Kari Daugherty had 14 points and 13 rebounds for her 16th straight double-double.

To be honest, I had to look every single bit of that information up. Like most of Eagle Nation, I spent the game huddled in front of a computer screen, relying on an on-again-off-again internet connection to watch.

I may not remember some of the moments from the game, but I will always remember what happened following it. After jokingly suggesting throughout the game that we should hop in the car and drive to San Antonio for the Final Four, photographer Dan Shade, managing editor Justine Ackerman and I did exactly that.

The 20-hour trip in Justine’s white Ford Fusion (nicknamed “Peeta”) included five stops for gas and food (Columbus, Louisville, Ky., Memphis, Tenn., just across the Texas border and Waco) and very little sleep for any of us. We made it safely, rolling into San Antonio around 3:30 p.m., three-and-a-half hours before tipoff. After checking into our hotel and showering, we made our way to Bill Geehey Arena for the Final Four game against Bentley.

We were glad to be there, but there was no “glad to be there” mentality on the floor for the Eagles. They began the game by playing ferocious defense and making shots from everywhere, which have two staples during their 33-game winning streak.

Ashley Dorner opened the scoring by draining an 18-foot jump shot from the top of the key, Stutzman drove to the hole to make it 4-0 and before the Falcons knew what had hit them they were down 15-2 just over four minutes into the game.

Stutzman got off to a particularly fast start. Following her layup in the opening minutes, she drove in for another to make it 8-2, grabbed a rebound and threw a perfect long-range chest pass to Tenyak for a layup and drained two 3-pointers, one from the left wing and the other from the left corner.

Ten points. One super assist. All in just over seven minutes of play that were enough to say that the Eagles were not satisfied with just a trip to the Elite Eight or the Final Four.

Of course, the Falcons made their runs and Ashland needed the stellar play of Daugherty, a huge “3” by Stutzman going into halftime and big plays from the rest of the team on both ends of the floor to survive, but there was simply no denying the Eagles a trip to the national championship Wednesday night.

The win also meant that Dan, Justine and I did not have to pack up and leave Thursday morning. As we instead sat down to a Mexican lunch on San Antonio’s famed Riverwalk, life could not have been much sweeter.

A mariachi band was playing in the background; we were eating some of the best Mexican food any of us had ever had while sitting in the warm Texas sun; fellow staffers Tyler Remmel and Glenn Battishill informed us that they had successfully sent the paper off to be printed; we had an entire day in front of us to explore one of the most beautiful cities in the world; most importantly, we were less than 48 hours from covering our school as it competes in the Division II women’s basketball national championship.

Taking off to San Antonio on a whim may have been a rash decision, but it was rationalized in that moment. In fact, at this point I feel like it would have been irrational to not see this team’s run to the end, no matter what lengths (1400 miles) we had to go to.

Memorabe Moments: March 12 vs. Wisconsin-Parkside

By Chris Bils March 14, 2012

The 2011-12 Ashland women’s basketball season has been one to remember. Currently ranked No. 2 in the nation, the team has won 31 straight games and shows no signs of slowing down. Over the past two...

Next stop, San Antonio: Eagles defeat Rangers 78-65 to advance to the Elite Eight

Next stop, San Antonio: Eagles defeat Rangers 78-65 to advance to the Elite Eight

By Chris Bils March 13, 2012

To make a deep tournament run, a team obviously has to be good, but it also needs to get some breaks along the way. Ashland’s women’s basketball team used a lot of skill and just a little bit of luck...

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