The 2006-2007 GW athletic season yielded two regular-season conference champions (women’s basketball and lacrosse), one conference tournament champion (men’s basketball), two team NCAA tournament berths and one individual berth (men’s and women’s basketball and gymnastics’ Jess Guilbert, respectively) and a slew of all-conference selections.
“This was a tremendous year for GW athletics,” Director of Athletics Jack Kvancz said. “The (athletes) did a great job in everything they did, and (many of them) got rewarded by going to (Atlantic 10) and NCAA tournaments. It was just a great year.”
Here are some accomplishments from the past nine months.
Lacrosse
After a 6-11 campaign during the 2006 season, including a 4-6 in-conference mark, the Colonials came back this year to capture a piece of the A-10 regular season title and earned the second seed in the conference’s four-team championship. They defeated St. Bonaventure 15-9 in the first round before losing to Richmond 15-7 in the final.
“The way we ended the season was bittersweet,” junior Katelyn Honeyford said. “We made it to the finals, but we felt that we were good enough to have won and (earn an automatic bid to the) NCAA tournament. We just didn’t play our best game that day.”
Another highlight from the season came in April, when the Colonials defeated Temple for the first time in program history. The squad also landed four players on the all-conference list. Honeyford was honored on the first team, while seniors Molly Gannon and Kristina Harvey and junior Kristin Karsch were named to the second team. Freshman Taylor Donohue was placed on the All-Rookie team. In addition, head coach Chrissy Lombard-Adair was named the A-10 Lacrosse Coach of the Year for the second time in three years.
“We were predicted (to finish in fifth place before the season began), and we came in first,” Honeyford said. “You have to look at the coach when a team can rise above what is expected and truly succeed past expectations.”
Softball
For the first time in its six-year history, the Colonials softball team qualified for the A-10 Championship by posting a 9-11 in-conference record under first-year coach Kim Staehle. Coming off a 3-15 conference showing last season, GW matched series victories at home against Saint Joseph’s and at Rhode Island along with one victory against each of five other A-10 schools. As the eighth and final seed, the Colonials’ season ended in the first round of the A-10 tournament, held in Amherst, Mass., with back-to-back losses to St. Louis and Charlotte.
“This season was a break out year for all of us. We set a goal to get to the A-10 tournament and didn’t stop fighting until we reached it,” junior Caroline Howe said. “As a team we played for each other and even through the tough losses we believed we had the skills to compete with the best.”
Graduate student Elana Myers was named to the all-conference first team and was honored as co-student athlete of the year. Howe said that Myers and the five other seniors, Lisa Cohen, Kaity Harbour, Katy Harrigan, Jen Hrycyna and Janelle Parker, were pivotal in this year’s strong showing.
“Our senior class was a key ingredient to the team’s success. The impact of their leadership both on and off the field is immeasurable,” Howe said.
Men’s basketball
After graduating four of the team’s five starters from the 2005-2006 squad, which made it to the second round of the NCAA tournament, it was hard to predict exactly what this year’s team would do. Two highlights from the regular season include the Colonials’ one-point victory over Virginia Tech at the BB&T Classic Dec. 3 and a win over Rhode Island in Kingston, R.I., Jan. 27 that put GW in first place in the conference. The victory was followed by a four-game losing streak, which bounced the Colonials from first place and forced them to play catch-up the rest of the season in order to earn a coveted first-round bye in the conference tournament.
After ending the regular season on a six-game winning streak and with an 11-5 conference mark, the Colonials entered the A-10 tournament as the No. 3 seed and proceeded to win three games in three days, including a 20-point trouncing of Saint Louis, who had defeated the Colonials in the regular season, in the semifinals. The win over Rhode Island earned GW an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. Junior Maureece Rice was named the A-10 tournament’s most outstanding player.
As a 12-seed, GW drew sharp-shooting Vanderbilt in the first round of the Colonials’ unprecedented third-straight NCAA championship. The squad’s season ended in Sacramento when it fell to the Commodores 77-44.
“I enjoyed my experience here,” senior Carl Elliott said during a post-game press conference after the NCAA tournament loss. “For us to come this far with a young basketball team means a lot to me. They gave it 100 percent every day and I love them for that.”
Elliott and Rice were named to the second and third all-conference team, respectively. Rice declared for the NBA draft but has not hired an agent. He has until June 18 to pull out in order to retain his eligibility and return for his senior season. Head coach Karl Hobbs was also selected as an assistant coach for the 2007 USA Basketball Men’s U19 World Championship Team at this summer’s FIBA U19 World Championship for Men, which will be held July 12-22 in Novi Sad, Serbia.
Women’s basketball
Ranked in the top 25 every week of the season except the first, the Colonials qualified for the Sweet 16 in the NCAA tournament before falling to top-seeded North Carolina in Dallas. With one of the toughest out-of-conference schedules in the country, the Colonials put together a 12-3 out-of-conference record that included a victory over then-No. 10/11 (AP, ESPN/USA Today) Georgia in late December.
The team then cruised through the A-10, earning a perfect 14-0 record before losing to Saint Joseph’s in the semifinals by two-points, costing the team a chance at a blemish-free conference season and a higher seed in the NCAA tournament.
The fifth-seeded squad’s first Sweet 16 appearance in a decade came after the Colonials defeated No. 12-seed San Diego State and fourth-seeded Texas A&M in the first two rounds, respectively, in Los Angeles before the 70-56 loss to the Tar Heels. GW ended the season ranked 15th in the AP poll and 13th in the ESPN/USA Today poll.
Junior Kim Beck, a finalist for the Nancy Lieberman Award, which honors the nation’s top point guard, and sophomore Jessica Adair were both named to the all-conference first team. Junior Sarah-Jo Lawrence earned second-team honors and classmate Whitney Allen was selected for the conference’s All-Defense team. Head coach Joe McKeown was also named the A-10 women’s basketball Coach of the Year for the fifth time.
Men’s tennis
After a 2-9 record last season, including a 1-4 A-10 mark, the Colonials improved to 6-10 and 3-3 in the conference in 2007 under first-year coach Greg Munoz.
“After last year’s season, I would say this year was a major success, especially at the A-10 tournament,” senior Brandon Harris said. “We really started to gel at the end of the year, and that was vital for us. Having a new coach really gave our guys a nice edge.”
GW finished its season winning five of its last six A-10 matches, including victories in the second and fourth rounds of the conference tournament, good for a third-place finish. After receiving a first-round bye as the third seed, GW topped Dayton 4-0 before losing 4-3 to Xavier in the semifinals. In the third-place match against St. Bonaventure, the Colonials quickly found themselves in a 3-1 deficit but took the final three matches, giving GW the victory.
“The competition at the A-10 tournament is incredible because every team is so intense. It allows for you and your teammates to bond and become really close, like family,” senior Brandon Harris said. “The match against (St. Bonaventure) was definitely one of the most memorable matches of my career in college.”
Junior Mustafa Genscoy was also named to the all-conference team for the third consecutive year after an individual 13-8 record while Harris and junior Sam Salyer received second-team honors.
Men’s swimming and diving
Led by sophomore David Zenk, who was named the A-10’s most outstanding performer during the 2005-2006 season and is also a member of GW’s water polo team, the Colonials finished seventh at the A-10 Championships in February. Zenk broke conference records in the 200- and 400-yard individual medley and GW’s record in the 200-yard individual medley while also taking second place in the 200-yard backstroke.
“I think we had a really good season overall. Almost every (race that we participated in) at A-10s was a best time. We all worked hard all year and it paid off for everyone,” Zenk said. “I was thrilled about the two conference records because getting them had been my goal all year and to get them was a great reward.”
Out of the pool, the team’s average GPA also ranked sixth in the nation for the fall 2006 semester among all Division I programs.
