For the second year in a row, the Smith College basketball team is playing in the NCAA Division 3 women’s national championship game.
That is after the Pioneers held off Wisconsin-Oshkosh Thursday night, 49-47 in Salem, Virginia, in a defensive-oriented affair with both teams struggling to shoot the ball.
Smith held their opponent to 2-22 shooting from three-point range.
“That was a grind,” said Lynn Hersey, Smith’s head coach, during a press conference after the win. “I think everyone in the stadium knew it was a grind."
But the effort was good enough to move her squad to the title game tomorrow afternoon and to a rematch of last year’s national championship game, when Smith will take on New York University.
NYU took the championship last year, beating Smith 51-41 in Columbus, Ohio. The Violets have not lost a game in nearly two full seasons, having won 61 consecutive games.
Hersey said she’s excited to playing for a national title again and to be taking on NYU.
"We're going to go in with the mindset of competing at our best and taking the body of work we had this year," Hersey said. "Throughout the tournament, we've played a lot of really good teams and we found a way to win...that's the mentality we're going to have going into Saturday's game."
Sophomore Hannah Martin said she too was looking forward to tangling again with NYU.
“Not a lot of pressure,” Martin joked. “We just want to go out and play a good game, our last game all together. But obviously remembering the loss from last year, we have a lot fueling us so we’re excited."
This won’t be the first time Smith has faced an undefeated opponent in this year’s NCAA Tournament. The Pioneers knocked off Bowdoin on their home floor in the third round.
Smith also is not a a stranger to playing close games. In their five victories so far in the national competition, the Pioneers have won by an average of about six points, with a pair of them by two points.
Tip-off Saturday is at 4 p.m.
