W&L Undefeated Women Roll On
After completing its first undefeated season in program history, the Washington and Lee University women’s basketball team won its third Old Dominion Athletic Conference title in the last four years on Sunday afternoon and improved to 28-0.
The top-seeded Generals, who went 16-0 in the ODAC and were ranked fourth in the nation, defeated second-seeded Randolph-Macon College 67-56 in the ODAC championship game at the Salem Civic Center. W&L will play host for a first-round game in the NCAA Division II tournament on Friday. For the schedule and tournament updates, visit www. generalssports.com.
With the win over Randolph-Macon (21-7 overall, 13-3 ODAC), the Generals bounced back from last year’s 65-58 loss to the Yellow Jackets in the conference title game.
In Sunday’s ODAC championship game, the contest was tied 31-31 at halftime before W&L took a 47-45 lead at the end of the fourth quarter. The Generals then outscored the Yellow Jackets 20-11 in the fourth quarter to pull away.
Senior Mary Schleusner, who was named ODAC player of the year and defensive player of the year for the third straight year last week, led W&L with 31 points and 18 rebounds and had two blocks. However, Schleusner picked up her fourth foul with just over six minutes left in the game, but her teammates stepped up in her absence. Schleusner was later named the Most Valuable Player of the tournament.
Sarah Zimmerman scored 12 points and pulled down eight boards for the Generals, while Quinn McGuinness chipped in eight points.
Sam Smith paced Randolph-Macon with 18 points and eight rebounds, while McKenzie Matheny scored 15 points.
Prior to the ODAC title game, the Generals earned a 73-55 home win over eighthseeded Roanoke College in the quarterfinals on Tuesday of last week before defeating fourth-seeded Shenandoah University 66-52 in the semifinals on Saturday at the Salem Civic Center. During the semifinal game, Schleusner became the all-time leading scorer in ODAC history, surpassing 2006 Randolph-Macon graduate Megan Silva’s 2,376 points.
Last week, second-year W&L head coach Brittany Kemp was named ODAC coach of the year.
