Donovan Campbell
Adrian, MI- Siena Heights University’s (SHU) Women’s Basketball team had arguably the best seasons in program history. The Saints posted a record of 23 wins and 10 losses overall, and posted a record of 17 wins and five losses in Wolverine-Hoosier Athletic Conference (WHAC) play. That received the Saints an at-large bid, and their first ever trip to the NAIA National Tournament.
“It was a great year, and how you judge the best year is tough because I think it was Sister Mary Alice back in ’77 or ’76 won 27 games” said head coach Sue Syljebeck in an interview last Thursday. Syljebeck made a reference to the first head coach of the women’s basketball at SHU Sister Mary Alice Murnen who led her 1978-79 team to a 27 win and two loss record. When asked about her reaction when the Saints found out they made the tournament Syljebeck went on to say, “It was exciting, and a relief because you never know when you’re an at large even at this level (NAIA).”
Syljebec was very uneasy about not having an automatic bid and it was quite nerve-wrecking to say the least, but still remained confident and hopeful that her team would get into the tournament. “I was up the night before watching scores because I knew what could happen, but I felt confident that morning after I saw the three teams that we needed to win had won” said Syljebeck.
The Saints had a great year in the conference. The Saints finished third in conference play behind the conference’s two other national qualifiers in Concordia University at Ann Arbor and Davenport University. The Saints also had their best end-of-season ranking ever this past season as well finishing at 23rd in the country.
When Syljebeck was asked what that meant to her personally she said, “It means a lot because the teams before this one had struggles, and to be able to share our programs success and congratulating us through emails and Facebook was really neat.”
As far as what it meant to the women’s program Syljebeck expressed, “Look at the banners hanging in the gym, you see men’s basketball, you see track, but you don’t see anything hanging around for women’s basketball because it really hasn’t been tradition and it was exciting to be able to get to that level. This team should be a first ballot Hall of Fame team in ten years because the women’s program hasn’t had much success and this team changed that.”
Syljebeck is losing three seniors this year, all of whom have been in the SHU women’s program for four years, Taylor Langenderfer, Chandler Levit, and Amanda Duke. Syljebeck talked a little bit about them all and why they were so important to the team.
“Taylor had trust in us as a staff. She built herself through the JV (Junior Varsity) program, through playing both, to Varsity sitting, and then to become an impact player for us and was a key piece to our success at Indiana Tech where we battled back from 19 points down to win. Without that win we don’t make the tournament. Amanda Duke really grew in her leadership. She used to be meek and quiet and a little silly off the court, but she just really grew and it was a huge piece of our team. Chandler though, really took this team in a leadership role. We’ve never given a leadership award out at our banquet but we did this year for the first time to Chandler. She really took the team and led them. She got people excited about our team and then everybody else started to talk about it. But those three were the reason our team got along so well.”
Anyone can see that these three seniors were a very intricate part to the Saints’ success this year and will greatly be missed.
Lastly Syljebeck talked about her recruiting and he incoming freshmen she has coming in. “This group of freshman are going to have to be really special. We’ve signed two-time Lenawee County Player of the Year, Lexi Johnson, who has scored over a thousand points, from Onsted High School. We’ve signed the Jackson County Player of the year Sydney Cook (Grass Lake High School). We have two girls from Wyoming High School out in Grand Rapids (MI) who we really think will help us, and we have two forwards and a post who we hope to finish out the class and bring in about eight girls.”
This season was a memorable one for the Saints. They got their second consecutive 20 plus win season with 23. Then the Saints made the national tournament for the first time in program’s history, and to top it off they had their best end-of-season finish, by completing the year as the 23rd best team in the country.
That’s a spectacular year. It all starts with coaching and Syljebeck runs a tight ship. She expressed that, “I’m tough on them, I’m tough on them. They have to understand their roles and buy in and we’ll continue to be successful.”