ST. JOSEPH, MO. — The Emporia State seniors won back-to-back MIAA regular season championships as sophomores and juniors, and they had experienced what it was like to be champions.
However, they had never experienced what it was like to win a tournament title until beating Northeastern State in the South Central Regional championship to make it to the Elite Eight, which begins tonight when they take on Michigan Tech at 8:30 p.m. at the Civic Arena in St. Joseph, Mo.
In the three years prior, the Lady Hornets had never won the Regional, and in four tries, they never won the MIAA Tournament. They always had experience and plenty of talent to succeed in the postseason, but they could not duplicate their regular-season success.
The noticeable difference at the Regional this year, the players said, was the looseness the team played with throughout all three games, something they will try to duplicate this week.
“I think in the past we’ve been a little bit worried, and sometimes we’ve looked ahead to future competition,” senior Cassondra Boston said. “Our motto going into this the whole time has been taking it one game at a time, and I think that’s been part of the reason we’ve been really focused and ready to play.”
With four seniors who are all a big part of ESU’s success, the postseason could have gone one of two ways. The Lady Hornets could have tightened up and played not to lose because it could be their seniors’ last game, or they could use the fact that they have four seniors as motivation to play hard and continue their season.
Late in the regular season, when they had a two-game lead over Washburn in the conference standings and ended up finishing in second place, they leaned toward playing not to lose. The Regional was almost a rebirth, an opportunity to play teams they had never played before and a second chance to win for Boston, Lacy Corker, Jamie Augustyn and Sophia Lenard.
“I feel like this team, we all have a good feeling about every game lately that we’ve played,” Augustyn said. “So I think that has a lot to do with it, just staying together and the same mindset has really worked for us.”
The Elite Eight is something new that only Corker has experienced. Corker was on the Elite Eight team in 2006, but she redshirted that season and watched from the bench. Corker said all she remembers is losing, and it isn’t something she has thought about much as the Elite Eight has approached.
“Just play like it’s any other game,” she said. “We can’t worry about the pressure. We’ve just come out and play our offense, play our defense like we know how and just do good.”
If there is some added pressure for ESU, it could be in the fact that the Lady Hornets are closer to home than any other team and are familiar with their surroundings because Missouri Western of the MIAA is the host school. That could also be looked at as an advantage or a disadvantage, but ESU coach Brandon Schneider and Michigan Tech coach John Barnes did not see it either way.
“I don’t feel like it’s an advantage,” Schneider said. “I feel like it’s something that adds to the excitement for our players, because their family members (can be here) and we have a very supportive community. We’ve been in the top five in attendance in the nation for 10 years or something like that. We’re capable of having a very good following up here and I think in the Regional as we were competing, our guys knowing that it’s only 2 hours, 15 minutes from home just added a little bit to the desire of wanting to try to get here.”
Barnes added: “Everybody is here for a reason, and obviously they’ve done a great job through the year. In one game no matter what the situation is, I think their players are experienced, they’re tough mentally, they’re tough physically, whether they’re close to home or away from home is not going to affect many things once the game starts.”
As for the pressure of playing in front of their fans, whom they also don’t want to let down, Schneider didn’t see that playing a factor.
Happy birthday to Volkens
Emporia State had a busy day on Monday with community service in the St. Joseph area, which included visiting local schools and classrooms.
Augustyn made sure in each classroom the Lady Hornets visited, the students knew it was junior Alli Volkens’ 21st birthday, and the senior guard led five different Happy Birthday songs.
“And she hated it,” Augustyn said. “It was fun.”
Good hosts
At the press conference Monday afternoon for the eight coaches at the Elite Eight, coach Brandon Schneider was very complimentary of the host city.
“This is our fifth trip to the Elite Eight, but the first in St. Joseph, and our four previous trips were in Arkansas,” Schneider said. “There were times when we were at those places, and the community was really not even aware with what was going on, and I think this just speaks to... all the preparation that’s gone into this tournament, because we’ve not been anywhere since we arrived that people did not ask us about being part of the National Championships and the Elite Eight.
Halfcourt contest
Emporia State practiced for 55 minutes on Monday afternoon at the Civic Arena and Schneider kept things serious for most of the practice.
The Lady Hornets did not scrimmage or play any games; however, Schneider had his players finish the day with a halfcourt shot contest. After many failed attempts by everyone on the team, junior forward Ashley Ferrell finally swished a half-court shot to end practice, which Corker said was the highlight of practice.
ELITE EIGHT
Emporia State vs. Michigan Tech
WHEN
Tonight at 8:30 p.m.
WHERE
Civic Arena in St. Joseph, Mo.
RADIO
104.9 FM
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