HAVERFORD, Pa. - The Haverford College women's basketball team celebrates its first postseason trip on Wednesday night as it takes part in the Centennial Conference playoffs for the first time in program history. The fourth-seeded Fords host the fifth-seeded Ursinus College Bears at Gooding Arena in first-round action tipping off at 7 p.m.
Junior Dominique Meeks' career-high 22 points helped Haverford grab a 61-48 win at Swarthmore last Saturday which proved historic as it ensured the Fords of their first spot in the conference playoffs.
Taking down the Garnet capped a regular season full of monumental victories for Haverford (17-8, 12-8 CC) as it set new program standards for conference wins and overall wins in a season. A 66-65 overtime victory on Jan. 5 was the first over Gettsyburg in 25 tries. A little over a week later, the Fords slipped by Johns Hopkins, 41-37, at Gooding Arena on Jan. 14 to pull off their first regular season sweep of the Blue Jays as they became the only team to take two from the Blue Jays this year. Finally, a Jan. 25 win at Muhlenberg, ranked 18th in Division-III at the time, was just the second victory over the Mules all-time and the first in Allentown.
Ursinus (13-12, 12-8) enters the playoffs on a three-game slide, including losses to fellow conference tournament participants Johns Hopkins and Muhlenberg.
The contest will match Haverford's stingy defense, currently ranked second in the conference and 19th in all of D-III that allows just 50 points a game against Ursinus' fifth-ranked offense, averaging 58.4 points per game, which turns the ball over just 14.2 times a game (ninth-lowest in all of D-III).
Averaging 15.8 points and 7.4 rebounds over her last five games, Meeks spearheads a balanced Haverford attack that boasts six players who average over five points a game. Freshman Elizabeth Lynch, a bona-fide perimeter threat with 47 three pointers on the season, chips in with 9.6 points per game. Jacquelyne Pizzuto, another freshman making a difference for the Fords, leads the team with 69 assists. Providing help in all areas across the stat sheet is sophomore Rachel Baskin who averages seven points and 5.3 rebounds per game, while also tallying 64 assists and 35 steals for the season.
Senior Lindsay Teuber, the fourth leading scorer in the conference, paces the Bears with an average of 14.8 points and 10.4 rebounds on the season. She also has registered 47 blocks. Ursinus' leading-scorer in 18 of 25 contests this season, Teuber has hit the double-double mark in 12 games.
The two teams split the season series as Haverford claimed a victory on its home floor on Dec.7 by a score of 47-42 on the strength of Meeks' 13 points and Baskin's 15 rebounds. Despite Baskin's 13-point, 10-rebound effort on Feb.8, Ursinus was able to take down the Fords, 65-52, in Collegeville.
The winner of the first-round match-up takes on 25th-ranked Johns Hopkins at 6 p.m. Friday night in the first of two semifinal games held in the Blue Jays' Goldfarb Gym.
Admission for the Wednesday night's game is $5 for adults (18 and over), $3 for students (13 to 18). Students from Haverford and Ursinus are free with ID.