There were far more questions than answers awaiting the Boston University women’s basketball team in the 2005-06 campaign. Would the team remain one of the best in the America East? Or would the inexperience of the Terriers’ young roster make for a long season?
Answering ‘yes’ to the first question and ‘no’ to the second, the Terriers won 18 games this season and played in the America East Conference championship game for the fourth consecutive season, prompting their coach to declare the year a success.
“I think we had a very good season,” said BU coach Kelly Greenberg. “We accomplished a lot of things.”
The Terriers will have many positive things to remember about this year. They can remember the six-game home win streak they compiled to start the season. They can remember the return of Erica Kovach, who averaged 10.5 points per game after missing the last half of the 2004-05 season with a knee injury. They can remember Rachael Vanderwal’s 13-game streak of double-figure scoring.
But with highs come lows, and the Terriers couldn’t escape lows this season. The team occasionally struggled to find a rhythm and stumbled into the postseason, losing its last three games of the regular season.
“For us to be a legitimate postseason tournament team, we can’t lose to some of the teams that we lost to,” Greenberg said. “We lost a few games that we should not have lost and that’s what we’re going to take into the next season.”
On a more positive note, the Terriers can also take into account the improved strength of their program. Despite playing one of its toughest out-of-conference schedules to date, BU’s record improved in Greenberg’s second season, as the Terriers went 18-12 with an 8-3 record at The Roof.
Always competitive in the conference tournament, this year was no exception. After outlasting the University of New Hampshire in the tournament quarterfinals, the Terriers had to pull out all of the stops in the semifinals. Matched up against Stony Brook University, sophomore Cheri Raffo scored seven of her 17 points in overtime to give the Terriers a 76-74 victory.
“That game was definitely very memorable. I thought it was unbelievable,” Greenberg said. “We just had so much riding on it and everyone thought that Stony Brook was going to win that game.”
The Terriers weren’t able to stretch that magic into the next day, however, as they dropped the championship game to the University of Hartford and were forced to watch the Hawks celebrate on the court.
“It hurt,” Greenberg said. “I think watching Hartford go crazy taught us more than the game itself.”
The end of the season was especially painful for Vanderwal, the senior guard who blossomed this season. Taking over the reins from Adrienne Norris, Vanderwal posted career highs in points and rebounds with 12.7 and 6.4 per game, respectively. She will leave campus No. 16 on BU’s all-time scoring list.
“Whenever anyone gives every single thing they have for the game of basketball, you feel for them,” Greenberg said. “I’m just really honored that I had the opportunity to coach Rachael for two years. I feel like Rachael is someone that I’m going to know for the rest of my life.”
Although Vanderwal and fellow senior Shannon Petranoff will be leaving this spring, Greenberg hopes their influence will remain a part of the program.
“I just think it’s really important that our players take pieces of Rachael and take pieces of Shannon with them,” Greenberg said. “Yes, they’re not going to be with us, but if we can take their strengths and make it a part of who we are as a team, that means that they’re still with us.
“It might sound a little corny,” Greenberg added, “but I really believe in that.”