Friday’s game versus Eastern Connecticut meant more to the women’s basketball team than most — it was senior night.
Senior night, usually one of the last home games of the season, is one of the toughest moments in an athlete’s career. It signifies the end: unless you’re going professional, which few Division III athletes do, your career as an athlete is over. And although there are many chances to play sports outside of the NCAA, it’s never quite the same.
Four women were recognized at senior night this weekend.
Shannon Kynoch is a five-year athlete at USM, she took last season off from basketball after a knee injury and surgery. In addition to her four years of basketball, she joined the lacrosse team her junior year. She will graduate this year with a major in social work and a minor in education.
Dawn Ross is also a four-year player, and is a captain on this year’s squad. Women’s basketball is one of the few programs at USM that consistently maintains players for all four years. The commitment of players likely has both a cause and effect relationship with the program’s success. Ross will graduate this year with a major in history and a minor in accounting.
Angela Santa Fe, known simply as A, played for the Huskies for three years after transferring to USM. She is Ross’s co-captain, and will graduate this year with a major in criminology. The only senior sure of what she’ll be doing next year, she plans on taking an internship in Boston to round out her studies.
Josalee Danieli transferred to USM this year for her final season after playing at Rhode Island College. Though new to the team, Jo had an instant connection — she played at Gray-New Gloucester High School with Ross. She is majoring in health sciences, and hopes to go into nursing. She plans to graduate next year.
Calling themselves “The Fab Four,” these women, along with their teammates, spend a majority of their time together and consider themselves to be more like a family than a team.
“To be honest, I’m kind of in denial,” says Ross of senior night. “I don’t want to believe that it’s here. I do want to take the next step in life, just not now. It’s sad: I love these girls and I love basketball.”
Danieli is afraid of how things will be next year, because she’ll still be at USM, but will be ineligible to play another season. “It will be an eye-opener, not having the routine that goes with playing. That means it’s time for the real world. But I’m proud for being able to play for four years, not lots of high school athletes get to do that.”
Santa Fe tries to stay positive, “it’s something to be happy and proud about, but it’s hard to accept. That it’s not our last home game makes it easier.” Like many other former players, she plans to sit in the stands next year, but “playing on the court isn’t the same as being in the stands,” she says.
Kynoch steals the word everyone else wanted to say “It’s bittersweet. I live here, basically. Not only will I be walking away from the team, but from the support from everyone, the fans who drive four hours just to give us high-fives before the game.”
An already emotional game was made worse by its result: the Huskies lost 64-65 in overtime. Santa Fe led four players in double figures with 17 points, Danieli had 13 points and a team-high seven rebounds and Kynoch had 11 points and six rebounds. Ross’s lone basket was pivotal as well: it forced the game into overtime.
Despite the loss, only the second of the season, the “Fab Four” and their teammates have a lot to be proud of.
Highlights for the seniors include several trips to the NCAA Division III national championships, but also the fact that, as Santa Fe says, “we’re always together, on and off the court. I’m pretty much never alone, someone from the team is always with me.”
For Kynoch, it means a lot that in her five years, she only lost a total of 11 or 12 games, and that they beat Bowdoin (this year by 20 points, Danieli is quick to point out).
But like Santa Fe, she has more to say about what happens off the court. “We have so many fun personalities. In the locker room, on the bus, there’s always something goofy or crazy going on.”
“It was a really special team this year,” says Ross, “in every game there were five people in double digits, there wasn’t just a single scorer. Those people before were great, and I admire them, but.”
The four women all agree that winning isn’t everything, but, as Ross puts it, for this team, it has often been the only thing. Having points coming from so many people, and being able to play 12-14 girls in every game has been an important part of this team’s dynamic, and may be what takes them back to the Final Four.
In terms of a legacy that this class of seniors will leave with the women’s basketball program, Kynoch thinks it relates more to personality and leadership than anything else. “Talent-wise, none of us are an Ashley Marble or a Megan Myles, but we set examples as outstanding leaders. It’s not something that’s going to be printed in the paper or in statistics, but we’re leaving them a good team.”
The Huskies will play two more home games to finish out regular-season play. They host UMass Boston on Tuesday at 5:30 p.m., and Plymouth State a week later, Feb. 19, also at 5:30. The conference championship begins on Feb. 26.