Annual Awards announced at banquet!

It's hard to believe that the season is over and we are already celebrating it with our banquet!  It's always fun to get together and recognize the members of the team for their hard work and commitment.

Each year the team votes on three awards: Offensive Player of the Year, Defensive Player of the Year and Most Improved.  Then I get to select two awards which is never an easy task; especially this year when our team leadership was so sound and everyone was committed to making the season successful.  The two awards I get to choose are the Leadership Award and the Hartzmark Commitment Award.  Obvisously, the leadership award recipient is someone who exemplifies everything a team leader should be.  The Hartzmark Commitment Award is named in honor of John Hartzmark who served as a student assistant during his Hiram days and gave so much time and energy to improving our team and program.  This award is given to the person who really goes above and beyond with their commitment and work ethic.  Both of these awards were well represented this year, but it didn't make choosing the recipients that much easier!



Tiffany Shields was voted as the team's Offensive Player of the Year.  Tiffany had a break out year and led the team in scoring with 14 points per game.  She also led the team in blocked shots.  Congrats Tiff!



Tiffany Shields was voted
the Offensive Player of the Year!



For the third consecutive year, Kelsey Durichko was voted the team's Defensive Player of the Year.  Kelsey led the team in steals and tied for the lead in rebounding with 6.5 per game!  She also broke the single season assist record!  Congrats Kelsey!



Kelsey Durichko, Defensive Player of the Year.



First year player, Danielle Day, was voted the team's Most Improved Player.  Danielle did a great job of working hard and continuing to improve throughout the season and earned more playing time as the season progressed.  We are looking forward to more of Danielle's contributions in the future!

I selected Jess Cowan as the recipient of the Leadership Award.  Jess was a fantastic senior leader for our team.  She did a great job of motivating and leading by example to a very young team.  Of our 15 players on the team, 12 were either first or second year players.  Jess was terrific in working with your younger players to help them understand what it takes to be successful at the college level.  We will truly miss Jess's leadership!

Jess Cowan and Coach Preston
at the banquet.

Chelsea Kovach was awarded the Hartzmark Commitment Award.  Chelsea is always working and pushing herself to get better.  On and off the court, Chelsea is a great ambassador for our program.  Her hard work truly paid off this year as she had a break out season and recorded a career high 21 points against Ohio Wesleyan.  I am very excited for her future with our team!  A much deserving individual!

Chelsea Kovach knocking in a couple
of her 21 points v. OWU.

Cowan and Durichko selected to All-NCAC squad

Senior guard Jess Cowan was selected to the NCAC Honorable Mention for the 2010-2011 season.

Photo courtesy of Tom Commett

Junior point guard Kelsey Durichko was also selected to the Honorable Mention team!

For a complete list visit http://www.northcoast.org/.

Photo courtesy of Rosalie Mormile

Terriers fall to Allegheny despite a career high from Tiffany Shields



Tiffany Shields scored 28 points
for the Terriers on Tuesday.



Despite a career night for Tiffany Shields, the Terriers fell to Allegheny College in the quarterfinals of the North Coast Athletic Conference Tournament.  Shields poured in 28 points for the game including shooting 4-8 from the 3-point line!

The Terriers fought until the end and can be extremely proud of all the accomplishments they achieved this season.



Senior guard Jess Cowan



Last night's game also marked the end of Jess Cowan's outstanding Hiram career.  For her career, Jess scored 782 points including 103 three-point field goals.  She also pulled down 345 rebounds.  Jess contributed more in a category that cannot be measured and that was her leadership!  She helped everyone on the team keep perspective, instilled competitiveness and she also influenced the team with her positive attitude.  Everyone involved with our program with miss her and her contributions! 

Hiram WBB hosts WBCA Pink Zone event!

The Hiram women's basketball team worked together with all the North Coast Athletic Conference Schools to celebrate the WBCA Pink Zone week!

Each NCAC school received team t-shirts donated by Victory Promotions (Watertown, NY) and wore them proudly to raise awareness for breast cancer.




2010-2011 Hiram WBB team sporting their Pink Zone shirts!
Photo courtesy of Rosalie Mormile

 

This event marks the first time in the history of the Pink Zone that an entire league came together to raise awareness and money for the Kay Yow Cancer Fund!

Hiram secures #6 seed for NCAC tournament

Despite losing their final game of the regular season, the Terriers secured the #6 seed for the upcoming NCAC tournament.  The team continues to makes it's mark as the #6 seed is the highest in team history!

Hiram will travel to Allegheny College on Tuesday night for a 7:30p tip-off.  The Gators swept the season series from Hiram, however, the Terriers put up a great fight each time and look forward to the third meeting of the season!

Check out http://www.northcoast.org/ for the latest tournament information!

Go TERRIERS!

Junior Point Guard Kelsey Durichko breaks Hiram's Single Season Assist Record!

Kelsey Durichko

Despite a disappointing loss at Ohio Wesleyan on Saturday afternoon, there was one bright spot for the Terriers.  Junior point guard, Kelsey Durichko, broke the single season assist record after recording a team high 5 assists.

By the end of the season, Kelsey will have shattered the old record of 115.  She currently has at least five games remaining this season and is averaging just under 6 assists per game with a season total of 117.

She is also leading the NCAC in assist to turnover ratio!

WAY TO GO KELSEY!

This week's forecast: WHITE-OUT!

Hello to all the Terrier supporters out there!

The past few games have definitely been exciting for us and especially the players.  We were able to beat Kenyon College for the first time since 2003!  It was a great game from start to finish; Tiffany Shields erupted for 24 points.  Amy Geisman and Chelsea Kovach also chipped in 14 each to round out the top scorers.


Here's a great picture of our team after a hard fought win!


We kept the momentum as we traveled to Oberlin for our next game and definitely hung on for a two point victory.  We didn't start out the game particularly well, but give credit where credit is due.  Oberlin started the game on fire from the field and held an easy 12-0 advantage.  After that we began to claw our way back into the game and eventually held a double digit lead.  However, Oberlin battled their way back and tied the game in the closing seconds and two free-throws by Jess Cowan sealed the win.

We closed out our non-league schedule last Tuesday night at Ursuline College.  It was a battle from tip-off to the closing horn.  Ursuline was able to tie the game with about :15 seconds left and Kelsey Durichko quickly sent the inbounds pass to Tiffany who noticed the Ursuline players celebrating at half-court.  She was able to drive the length of the court and was fouled going in for the lay-up.  We would again seal the victory with a pair of free-throws, this time from Tiffany Shields.  She was also our leading scorer with 20 points and Calysia Smyers chipped in 10.

Our final game of the week was against the #15 team in the country: Denison University.  We didn't fair too well against the Big Red the first time around so we were all excited for the opportunity to show how much we have improved and were determined to be competitive throughout.  We were definitely competitive throughout and a run in the final three minutes of the first half gave Denison it's largest lead of the game at the time at 32-22.  In the opening minutes of the second half, Denison began to pull away but we fought back and got it to a 10 point deficit with just over five minutes remaining in the game.  Well, Denison is undefeated for a reason.  They were able to execute and force a couple of key turnovers and were able to hold on for a 65-49 win.

This week we will host The College of Wooster on Wednesday night.  We are planning our annual WHITE OUT event...if you are planning on attending the game, wear WHITE!  We are excited to host Wooster and if we take care of business, we hope to get back to our winning ways.

We close out the week with a trip to Ohio Welseyan and hope to avenge our earlier loss to the Battling Bishops.

I hope you can join us for our WHITE OUT!