Twitter
Facebook
Reddit
Digg
Tell us what you think!Send a letter to the editor about this or any other article in The Maine Campus.
University of Maine women’s basketball head coach Sharon Versyp sat in her office Monday afternoon, preparing for her team’s next game, with a smile on her face.
She had just learned a few hours earlier that her team received a bid to the Women’s National Invitational Tournament. While her administrative assistant Marian Dressler worked the phones to finalize the team’s travel plans to West Virginia, Versyp began preparing for the Lady Black Bear’s first-round contest against the Mountaineers.
The 17-12 Mountaineers made it to the Big East quarterfinals last weekend.
“They’re from the Big East so you know they play a very competitive schedule day in and day out,” said Versyp. ”
After a devastating loss last Thursday in the America East quarterfinal round to eighth-seeded Boston University, the Black Bears knew they would not get an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament. They were, hopeful of an NIT bid and sure enough it came.
“How we lost and how we went out in America East is just a very empty feeling,” said Versyp. “If we weren’t hurt our hopes for the NCAA would have been better, but we have a second opportunity to show what we’re about.”
Against the Terriers, senior point guard Kim Corbitt aggravated a shoulder injury late in the first half and had to sit out the second half. Corbitt was named Conference Player of the Year and Conference Defensive Player of the Year less than 24 hours earlier. She is the first player to receive both honors in the same season.
Along with Corbitt, senior co-captain Missy Traversi was named to the all-conference first team, Versyp was named America East Coach of the Year for the second time in three seasons, and sophomore Bracey Barker was named to the All-Conference third team.
Versyp said the award for Corbitt was well-deserved but also surprising.
“I think it surprised everybody. We feel that her or Missy could have been MVP of our team,” said Versyp. “I didn’t know if either of them would receive it, because everybody looks at statistics.”
While Corbitt led the team in steels and assists it was her defensive prowess and pure leadership presence on the court that helped UMaine to four straight winning seasons, three straight 20-win seasons, and three post-season appearances.
“You take her or Missy out of our team, they’ve been the engine of our team for four years,” said Versyp, “so that obviously would hurt us.”
Corbitt was not the only injured Lady Black Bear. Traversi played the game with an injured wrist.
While the Black Bears were able to pull close to BU several times the Terriers outlasted the Black Bears 63-51 to advance to the semi-finals.
The Black Bears had won the conference regular season championship for the third consecutive season, and were highly favored to repeat as America East tournament champions, an honor that ended up going to Jennifer Rizzotti’s Hartford Hawks.
“It’s just a shame that you play and you put so many hours in and it comes down to one game,” said Versyp, who would like to see the automatic conference bid to the NCAA tournament go to the regular season champion. “You look at the bracket in the WNIT, half of those teams probably could have made the NCAA tournament easily if they could have just won one more game,” said Versyp.
