At first glance, the start to Northwestern’s women’s basketball season may seem similar to last season.
Oh, and there’s that national championship they will be defending. Again.
“We may have an extra target on our back,” said junior forward Kendra De Jong. “But teams are always out to beat us and are going to come out ready to play no matter what our previous season was like. Northwestern always has an amazing women’s basketball team that is always going to be playing at a high intensity.”
Upon closer inspection, however, the Raiders have undergone several rather large changes since the end of last season.
Beginning, of course, with the departure of Earl Woudstra, head coach of the Raiders for 17 years, and owner of a .744 winning percentage. He will be inducted into the NAIA Hall of Fame in 2012.
Taking over for Woudstra is Chris Yaw, previously an assistant with a great deal of knowledge on the defensive aspects of the game.
“A lot of the things we are doing are the same as previous years with little tweaks here and there,” said senior post Mel Babcock. “[The coaching staff] is different, but still good.”
Another major challenge for the Raiders will be the loss of Becca Hurley, the Most Outstanding Player of last year’s national tournament, as well as NAIA Div. II Player of the Year. But the Raiders say that despite Hurley’s excellence, the adjustment isn’t too difficult.
“We can’t replace her,” said sophomore forward Alli Dunkelberger. “But we can work hard to make one another better in practice each and every day.”
The Raiders will return their four other starters from last year’s squad, as well as several players who received noteable minutes off the bench.
NW is ranked No. 1 in the preseason NAIA Div. II polls. But Yaw isn’t looking too far ahead for the Raiders, despite the hype surrounding the team.
“Our goal focuses on our conference,” Yaw said. “We want to try to be the champions of our conference, which of course puts us in a great place for the national tournament. We don’t look beyond that. That prepares us to perform well and get better as a team.”
The preseason rankings support his claim. The GPAC promises to be a brutal conference, as is usually expected. Joining NW in the top five from the GPAC are No. 2 Morningside and No. 5 Briar Cliff. Concordia is ranked No. 22, and Dordt and Mount Marty also received votes.
Only once since 2001 has a team from outside the GPAC won the NAIA Division II National Championship. NW has held the trophies four times in that span.
“The GPAC has great competition and it really prepares us well for the national tournament because a lot of the teams we play in the regular season are some of the best teams in the nation,” De Jong said.
But the Raiders haven’t left themselves room to relax, even in the non-conference schedule. They begin the season on the road in North Dakota, far from the Bultman Center and friendly crowds.
They follow up with two teams (Grand View and Mount Mercy) ranked in the NAIA top 25 before they even begin the testing conference play.
And so begins NW’s title defense. Again.
