In his first season leading Scranton's women's team, Trevor Woodruff has the Lady Royals off to a 16-0 start. Photo by Jim O'Connor/NJSportPics.com

By Ryan Scott
D3hoops.com 

"Oh, I know Trevor," says longtime Moravian coach Mary Beth Spirk.

Spirk has a connection to first year Scranton coach, Trevor Woodruff, who was hired this summer as the permanent replacement for Mike Strong. Woodruff's sister played basketball at Moravian for Spirk in the late 90's.

The two teams, both undefeated in Landmark Conference play, face off against each other at Scranton on Wednesday.

"I've been assured," says Woodruff, "at least for this game, all of my family will be wearing Scranton gear."

The rivalry might be a friendly one, but that doesn't make it any less intense.

"I've always loved playing Scranton," says Moravian senior Alexis Wright. "It's always a physical game and it challenges me to perform well. It's always exciting to play really tough teams."

This game was almost played without Wright, a former All-American and newly minted member of the exclusive 1,500 point-1,000 rebound club. She's playing on a medical redshirt year, after missing most of the 2013-2014 season with a torn ACL.

Playing while pursuing a master's degree in Human Resource Management, she says, "Not everyone gets an opportunity to come back and play another year of college basketball. I thought to myself, why not? Why not give it my all for another year."

This drive illustrates the commitment of D-III athletes, but Wright's story also illustrates the other aspect of D-III competition – she didn't make the decision to come back until the very end of August, working to make sure a fifth season was possible financially.

Says Spirk, "It's a lot of money to come and play your fifth year – she was trying to work it out financially. August 25th, pretty much. From my end, I planned for her not to come back, so when she did it was a huge bonus for me and for our team."

Wright fills stat sheets and leads on and off the court, but one of the key weapons in the Moravian arsenal is depth.

Woodruff says of his opponent: "The two things that jumped out at me: first, the number of good players they have; they can just roll kids out there and every one of them are talented. Secondly, their ability to score is the best of anybody we're going to play this year. They've got a knack for moving the basketball and finding the open person. Every person who catches it has the ability to score the ball."

Woodruff himself was a bit of a late decision this season as well. Scranton went through a lot of transition in the athletic department, hiring a new athletic director, before the search for a women's basketball coach could begin.

Junior forward Sarah Payonk said, "It wasn't until we got back to campus this fall that we knew what was going on, but the team got to meet with the two finalists and give our opinion."

Things seem to be going well. The Scranton women have yet to lose a game, entering Wednesday 16-0 with a +20 scoring differential. Payonk is averaging 13 points and 10 rebounds per game. Fellow junior Alexix Roman is averaging 18 points and seven rebounds per game, with a quartet of outside shooters keeping defenses honest.

"They have two really solid post players," says Spirk. "Their shooting guards are very good and experienced. They've got a pretty good point guard [freshman Bridgette Mann] we recruited, so I know a lot about her. I'm anticipating a great game. Anytime we get together with Scranton we have some good competition. It's going to be a battle."

Moravian enters the game at 13-2, dropping the first game of the season to a strong Muhlenberg squad and another to Albright (currently 14-2). The last loss came at the end of a brutal pre-season slog where they played 11 games before December 12, including perennial powers Montclair State, DeSales, and Stockton.

"We had a really tough schedule early on," said Spirk. "I did it purposely because I knew we were going to have a pretty good team. We were challenged. My philosophy was, after the holidays, I wanted us completely focused on conference play. It was a lot of physical and mental pressure on the players, but we made it through and hopefully it will help us now. I'm extremely pleased to be where we are at this point."

In addition to Wright, the Greyhounds boast transfer Camille McPherson, who leads the team in scoring and three-point shooting. They also have seven seniors on a roster that lost no one from last season.

"We are a tighter group," says Wright, "because we have so much experience on the team. We went to the NCAAs; we know what it feels like to play in big games. Everyone's been looking at Scranton as the top dog. We just want to work hard and prove people wrong."

It's the same message you hear at Scranton, where the production of All-American Mererdith Mesaris had to be replaced, along with new players in new roles learning a new system from a new coach.

"Three years, three new coaches," says Payonk. "Having a fresh start all-around was definitely not a bad thing for our team."

These two teams seem pretty evenly matched. Although Scranton is ranked seventh in the D3Hoops.com Top 25 Poll and Moravian is just getting a few votes, it's a hard game to predict. Perhaps Woodruff provides the best breakdown of what you'll see if you tune in Wednesday night:

"They're going to challenge us on defense. We're a little more dependent on our defense. They have the ability to defend you, but they also have the ability to just outscore you. I'm not sure that's the case with us. It'll be an interesting matchup of styles."

Whichever team wins and takes control of the Landmark, it will have to continue the season knowing there's a strong squad out there counting down the days to February 3 and the rematch in Bethlehem.

Knights surprise

The Southern Virginia men have won only five games so far this season, but four have been in Capital Athletic Conference play, leaving them in fourth place, and fighting for one of six playoff spots. Seniors David Baety, Anders Jacobson, and Kevin Walker are trying to make some noise in their final career CAC run. As a Year 4 Provisional member, SVU is not eligible for the NCAA Tournament, but they are free to participate in conference tournament play. They are home against Mary Washington and Wesley this week.

McDaniel tops Muhlenberg, Centennial

The undefeated and No. 9 ranked Muhlenberg women lost their first game of the season last Tuesday at home to McDaniel. The Mules got out of the gate quickly and built a 16-point halftime lead, but McDaniel battled back in the second half, narrowing the lead to five by the end of the third quarter and eventually winning 65-59 to take top spot in the Centennial Conference standings.

This was truly a defensive struggle, with McDaniel scoring just 20 points in the first half, and allowing only 23 from Muhlenberg in the second. McDaniel forced 21 turnovers and turned 18 offensive rebounds into 20 second chance points. Lindsey Nichols and Sarah Bach each had double-doubles for the Green Terror; Christina Manning led the Mules with 16 points.

The teams have to wait only until January 30th for the rematch in Allentown, but while Muhlenberg has five games scheduled between now and then, McDaniel only has three.

Quick hits

Gettysburg gets a shot at Centennial Conference leading Franklin & Marshall on Wednesday, then follow it up with a Saturday rematch against Swarthmore, the lone CC team to beat them this year.

The Messiah College women sit atop the MAC Commonwealth and haven't lost a game since December 9th, but they face six consecutive conference road games upcoming – the 6th being the rematch against 14-2 Albright, whom Messiah beat 59-49 at home a week ago.

Don't look now, but Drew has slid into second place on the men's side of the Landmark. The Rangers struggled a bit early on, with leading scorer, Mike Klinger, missing six games due to injury, but they've righted the ship since he's returned, including a win over previously undefeated Susquehanna this week.

Milestones

Erik Fisher from Stevenson went over 1,000 career points this week, as did Brionna Johnson from Wesley. Kelecia Harris from Albright blocked her 200th shot.

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