Record: 14-13, 12-4 PAC
Head Coach: Kevin Calabria (19th season, 355-169)
Assistant Coaches: Ray Edwards (4th season), Jen Sawyer (4th season), Paul Pfanders (1st season), Ed Olden
Postseason: PAC Quarterfinals (Alvernia 79, Centenary 62), PAC Semi-Finals (Gwynedd-Mercy 79, Alvernia 71)
Awards:
Jill Rosolie - D3hoops.com Women’s Basketball Mid-Atlantic All-Region Third Team, All-PAC 2nd team
Kelli McIntyre – 2nd Team All-PAC
Ashley Blevins – All PAC Sportsmanship Team
In their final year of PAC competition, the Alvernia Women’s Basketball Team gave a run to remember, including memorable final clashes with conference rival Gwynedd-Mercy. Though the young team came up just short, they established the building blocks for the future, upon entering the MAC Freedom Conference in 2008-09.
Possibly the biggest highlight of the season, was the fantastic nine-game winning streak that spilled into the postseason. During this winning streak, Coach Kevin Calabria notched his 350th career win, and 200th PAC win on the same historic night, when the Crusaders ended Gwynedd-Mercy’s 43-game conference winning streak. During the streak, they outscored their opponents by over 15 points per night, forced an average of 22 turnovers, and held their opponents to a .367% shooting percentage.
Freshman
Kelli McIntyre (Orwigsburg, Pa./Blue Mountain) led the team in scoring (14.3 ppg), and steals (40). Kelli saved her best for last, averaging 19.8 points per game in her final 12, after averaging a mere 7.2 points per game in her first 10 games. She finished the season on a streak of 12 straight games scoring in double figures, eight of which were 20-plus, including her career-high 25 which she reached twice, both in home wins over Centenary. McIntyre shot 45 percent from the 3-point arc and pulled down 3.7 rebounds per game. McIntyre proved to be instrumental to Crusader success, since all four regular season PAC losses came when McIntyre was out with injury. Kelli was named All-PAC 2nd team at the end of the season.
Senior
Jill Rosolie (Quarryville, Pa./Solanco) provided a spark to the Crusaders throughout the season as well. Rosolie finished the season second on the team in scoring at 11.9 points per game and third in rebounding at 4.6 boards per game. She scored double figures in 13 of the last 16 games of the season and totaled a season-high 14 rebounds in a game against Messiah. She was named to the D3hoops.com Women’s Basketball Mid-Atlantic All-Region Third Team, as well as All-PAC 2nd team.
Another freshman to make an impact, was Alexandra Velasquez (Lancaster, Pa./Manheim Township). She chipped in down low on a nightly basis, averaging 10.8 points, 5.5 rebounds, and 2.1 steals per game. Velasquez recorded 3 double-doubles, including a 14 point, 14 rebound, 4 steal effort against Rosemont (1/12/08).
Among the other first year players to make an impact this year, included junior
Ana Nieves,
Lillian Snyder, and
August Reichardt.
Also contributing to the Crusader effort included
Joanna Graber,
Michelle Lutzkanin,
Allee Barnes, and
Rachel Koerner.
Senior
Ashley Blevins (York, Pa./Central York) was named to the PAC All-Sportsmanship team, culminating her career at Alvernia.