Baldwin Wallace University Women's Basketball Team Can Control Its Own Destiny
BEREA, OHIO -- The Baldwin Wallace University women's basketball team can control its own destiny. The Yellow Jackets enter this week with a 17-2 overall and 10-2 Ohio Athletic Conference record prior to playing games at Heidelberg College in Tiffin on Wednesday and at Marietta College in Marietta on Saturday. BW is ranked 14th nationally in both the d3hoops.com Internet Web site and in the WBCA (Women's Basketball Coaches Association/ USA Today polls. But more importantly, last Thursday, in the first poll released by the NCAA Division III Great Lakes Region Selection Committee, BW was ranked second.
To date, the Yellow Jackets have split games with the number one-ranked team (Wilmington College) and have beaten the number five (Wittenberg University), number six (Otterbein College) and number eight (Case Western Reserve University) ranked teams. If the BW can win each of its remaining six Ohio Athletic Conference regular season games and the 2003 Ohio Athletic Conference Tournament which will be played at home in the "friendly confines" of the Rudolph Ursprung Gymnasium, it would earn the top seed in the Great Lakes Region. The number three-ranked team in the Great Lakes Region is Washington & Jefferson (Pa.) College, the number four-ranked team is Hope (Mich.) College and the number seven-ranked team is Depauw (Ind.) University. The second regional poll will be released this Thursday.
"It was great news," said veteran Yellow Jacket Head Coach Cheri Harrer, the winningest coach in Yellow Jacket history. "We can control our own destiny by winning one game at a time. If we play each game like it is a BIG game, we can earn the top seed.
"This gives our players and the coaching staff a goal to shoot for," said Harrer. "We need to play it one game at a time. We need to win out during the OAC regular season and then take a long home winning streak into the OAC Tournament. Our players now know what they have to do."
The Yellow Jackets are 11-0 at home this year and have a 19-game home winning streak dating back to last year. After facing Heidelberg and Marietta on the road this week, BW will travel to Ohio Northern University next Tuesday (Feb. 11), play host to OAC rival Capital University (Saturday, Feb. 15), travel to Cleveland cross-town rival John Carroll University (Wednesday, Feb. 19) and end the season at Otterbein (Sat., Feb. 22). The 2003 OAC Tournament begins on Monday, Feb. 24 and concludes with the Final Four at BW as a part of the OAC Winter Championships Festival on Friday, Feb. 28 and Saturday, March 1.
In other BW women's basketball news, Yellow Jacket senior guard Sarah Gordon (Wooster Senior High School) is this week's OAC Player of the Week. Also, last Wednesday, in a 92-63 win versus Mount Union College, senior two-time All-OAC forward Holly Koepp (Lorain Catholic H.S.) scored a career-high 26 points and surpassed the 1,000-point mark.
FOR MORE INFORMATION, please contact the BW Sports Information Director Kevin Ruple by telephone at (440) 826-2327, by FAX at (440) 826-2329 or via e-mail at kruple@bw.edu. To contact Yellow Jacket Head Basketball Coach Cheri Harrer, please call her at (440) 826-3299, FAX her at (440) 826-2192 or e-mail her at charrer@bw.edu. In addition, the latest BW women's basketball information can be obtained on our Internet Web Site at www.bw.edu/athletics.