Lady Jays lose but head to NCAAs

The Hopkins women's
basketball team hosted
the Centennial Conference
tournament last weekend
for the second consecutive
year. The Lady Jays,
who were regular season
conference champions, finished
as tournament runners-
up in 2011 after falling
to rival Muhlenberg in
the championship match.
History was doomed to
repeat itself this year, as
Hopkins beat Haverford,
55-47, in the semi-finals but
ultimately fell in the finals
once again to Muhlenberg,
74-53.
The Lady Jays concluded
the weekend with a
22-4 record but discovered
Monday they would not be
concluding the season. The
team received an at-large
bid to the NCAA tournament
and will travel to
Medford, MA to play the
University of New England
this Friday in the first
round of the tournament
held at Tufts University.
The Conference Championships
posed two large
challenges to the Lady
Jays in the form of the
Haverford Fords and the
Muhlenberg Mules. Haverford,
at 18-9 overall, was
responsible for two of Hopkins'
three regular season
losses and had previously
held the team to a seasonlow
37 points.
Hopkins came out
strong and led 11-4 within
four minutes of the start of
the game with points from
junior forward Alex Vassila,
junior forward Sarah
Higbee and senior guard
Stephanie Fong. The Fords
then fought back and tied
the game at 11, but Vassila
scored two points off of a
layup to put the Lady Jays
back in the lead, 13-11. The
team never looked back
from there, as Hopkins did
not give up the lead for the
remainder of the game.
Vassila led the Lady Jays
to victory by making two
free-throws early in the
second half to extend Hopkins'
lead to 29-24 and spur
a 10-2 run that would pull
the team away from Haverford
for good.
The junior ended up
scoring a game-high of 18
points and pulling down
a careerhigh
of 17
rebounds.
She also
c o n t r i b -
uted four
b l o c k e d
shots, including
an
impressive
series in
the second
half that
consisted
of Vassila
bl o c k i n g
a Haverford
layup
a t t e m p t
and subsequently
r u n n i n g
up the
court to
score a layup of her own
off of a pass from senior cocaptain
Chantel Mattiola.
Mattiola had eight
points, eight rebounds and
three assists in the game
versus Haverford. Senior
co-captain Stephanie Fong
joined Mattiola and Vassila
among the leaders of the
game with 13 points and
nine assists.
The Lady Jays then
turned their attention to
Muhlenberg (22-5), a team
seeking revenge of their
own, as Hopkins had beat
the Mules twice in the regular
season. The teams had
vied for conference and national
rankings all season,
as both schools had been
ranked in national D-III
polls during the year.
Muhlenberg came out
strong, and, while the Lady
Jays made a valiant effort,
Hopkins could not bounce
back from an early deficit.
At halftime, the game was
close at 30-23, with freshman
Jessica Brown sinking
a jumper, as time expired to
pull Hopkins within seven.
Vassilla and Mattiola hit a
jumper and a three-pointer,
respectively, early in the
second half to close the gap
to four points. However,
the Mules surged back and
jumped out to a 15 point
lead with 9:08 play. With
just two minutes remaining
in the game, Muhlenberg
was ahead 63-45 and
had ensured victory.
Fong and freshman Haley
Bush scored 10 points
each, while Fong also
handed out nine assists.
Vassila had three blocks
and grabbed a game-high
of 15 rebounds. Even with
the loss, good news was in
the Lady Jays' future.
"It definitely hurt to lose
to Muhlenburg. They are a
really talented team, and
we simply didn't play our
signature game that day,"
Kat Fox, senior co-captain,
said. "It is important for
us to use that game as a
learning experience and
motivation to improve in
practice this week. We are
all thankful for the opportunity
to continue our
season, and we are really
looking forward to playing
in [Medford] this Friday."
The team will depart
on Thursday for Massachusetts.
Tip-off Friday is
scheduled for 6 PM with
a potential second round
match-up ready for 7 PM
on Saturday.