By Gordon Mann
D3sports.com

Carrie Snikkers wasn't needed as much during the regular season, but has averaged 20 points and 10.8 rebounds in the NCAA Tournament. Hope athletics photo

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. -- Last April, Hope women's basketball coach Brian Morehouse hopped in the car with assistant coach Morgan Hughes and drove to St. Louis to watch the Division I Women's Final Four. 

The route between St. Louis and Holland, Mich., runs right through Bloomington, Ill. Knowing that Bloomington would host the 2010 Division III women's Final Four, Morehouse decided to make a pit stop there on the drive back home. After getting some food in Bloomington, Morehouse and Hughes got back in the car to finish the drive home.  Morehouse told Hughes, "Hit the button (on the odometer) and we figured out exactly how far it was from here to Hope College into the DeVos Fieldhouse parking lot."

Whatever the odometer read, the distance between Holland and Bloomington has felt longer than that emotionally for Hope. The past two seasons the Flying Dutch left home for the Sweet 16 and Elite 8 rounds with the goal of returning to campus with a chance to win the national championship on their own court. Hope had submitted the winning bid to host the Final Four in 2008 and 2009. With a talented roster and a national title in 2006, it was not unreasonable to think that the Flying Dutch might win another one on their own floor, just as they did 1990.

But both 2008 and 2009 ended when Hope ran into a team that was writing its own fairy tale ending. In 2008 the Flying Dutch lost 53-49 to Howard Payne in an Elite 8 matchup of undefeated title contenders. Seven days later Morehouse watched the Yellow Jackets win the title inside the DeVos Fieldhouse. Last season Hope fell one game short of the Final Four again when it could not solve George Fox's zone defense. Like Howard Payne, George Fox capped an undefeated season by winning the title at Hope seven days later.

Some Hope fans grumbled about cruel fate when they learned the Flying Dutch had to travel to Illinois Wesleyan for the Sweet 16 and Elite 8 this season. The Titans were given the chance to win the national title without leaving Bloomington while Hope had to -- and could not -- win two games away from home to play in the Final Four it was hosting. But this past weekend Hope left Illinois Wesleyan with two wins and plans for a return trip to Bloomington for the Final Four.

Last Friday the Flying Dutch won a defensive battle against Marymount, winning 53-46. After making just three of 16 three point shots in the first half, Hope established junior center Carrie Snikkers in the post early in the second half. 

Snikkers scored 10 consecutive points in a way that showcased her range of talents. She started with a layup and a free throw to complete a three-point play. Then she scored two more off an offensive rebound. She hit a jumper inside the paint, another layup and a 3-pointer to cap the run. 

Marymount hung tough and pulled even at 46 when Amanda Billy banked home a three pointer of her own with two minutes to play. But on the next possession, senior guard Philana Greene fed Snikkers for the basket, the foul and eventually the win.

Snikkers, whom Morehouse calls Hope's "pacifier" because she provides a secure scoring option, has a rare set of skills for a 6-3center. On offense, she is strong enough to establish position in the low post with soft enough hands to finish from different angles. She shoots 32 percent from three-point range and passes well out of the inevitable double or triple team that opposing teams throw at her. Morehouse calls her "one of the best passers I've ever coached. Post players aren't often good passers but she's one of the best players I've had at passing the basketball."

On the defensive side, Greene has good lateral movement and helps the Hope forwards collect rebounds. The MIAA defensive player of the year helped lock down UW-Stevens Point guard Andrea Flease, who had cut Illinois Wesleyan's full-court press to ribbons the previous night. Against the Pointers, Snikkers scored another 21 points to give her 42 for the weekend and added 12 rebounds and three blocks. The third key piece from the last two tournament runs, senior guard Jenny Cowen, struggled for much of the night but hit a clutch jumper with one and a half minutes left to give Hope an insurmountable eight point lead.

When the final seconds ticked off the clock in Hope's 71-64 victory over UW-Stevens Point, the players rushed the floor in a celebration that might have seemed unusually boisterous for a team that has won 145 of its last 154 games. But the smiles on the faces of Greene, Snikkers, Cowen and Morehouse were more a reflection of the disappointing way the last two seasons finished than a contradiction to Hope's steady excellence. 

"No words can even describe how happy I am," Greene said with a grin in Saturday night's postgame news conference. "Jenny (Cowen) and I last year, after we lost (to George Fox), kind of embraced one another and we were kind of like, 'Is it ever going to happen? Are we ever going to make it to the Final Four?' " 

Perhaps as the lone seniors on the team Greene and Cowen have felt extra pressure to reach that level after falling short in previous seasons. Relief from that pressure was evident after Saturday's win. Cowen said: "We just have tremendous trust on this team. And this is by far the best team I've ever been on because of the good relationships and the trust that we have with one another."

In addition to good relationships, Hope has great depth. The Flying Dutch got scoring contributions from nine players and rebounds from 10 on Friday night. Saturday night's box score was strikingly similar: 21 points for Snikkers, nine players score and ten players rebound. 

That kind of depth lets Morehouse swap pieces throughout the game. He can use six different guards who can each handle the ball, feed the post and on occasion hit a big shot. Freshman Liz Ellis had the biggest shot of Saturday's victory over UW-Stevens Point when she drilled a three with two minutes left to give Hope a 66-60 lead. Morehouse called reserve forward Rachael Kutney, "the reason we were up by two in the first half." Kutney scored eight points in seven minutes before the break and allowed starting forwards Snikkers and Erika Bruinsma to conserve energy.

And so this weekend Hope will return to Illinois Wesleyan for the Final Four. In one sense, they will have home court advantage against Rochester in Friday's national semifinal. The Flying Dutch played on Illiniois Wesleyan's court on Saturday while Rochester was in New Jersey. Judging by last weekend's turnout, they will play in front of a large contingent of Hope fans. And when Saturday is over, the team and its fans will make the same drive back to Holland this year that Morehouse did last year. 

It turns out that drive isn't measured in miles as much as it's measured in wins. It took 31.