Trine home for teammate trio

More news about: Trine
Mar 16, 2022
Kaylee and Alyssa Argyle, sisters and teammates, have helped Trine get to the national semifinals.
Trine athletics photos
 

By Brian Lester
D3sports.com

Kaylee Argyle allows her mind to travel back in time to a point where the end of the road had arrived for her and her sister, Alyssa, as well as Natalee Kunse. At least as far as their time as AAU teammates was concerned.

Part of the same AAU squad since middle school, things were about to change.

Kunse was headed to Trine that next season. Kaylee would follow a year later. Alyssa headed in the same direction one year after her sister.

Oh, the three talked at times when they were younger about one day playing college basketball together, but in a lot of ways, it was simply talk. 

“Senior year, we talked about how we weren’t going to be playing together anymore, and we said hopefully it’s not the last time," Kaylee said. "We brought up playing in college, but we also talked about how you have to go to the place that best fits you.”

Fast forward to the 2021-22 college hoops season, and here is Trine, in the NCAA Division III Final Four, the Argyle sisters as well as Kunse, together again and experiencing a special moment in school history with the Thunder.

Trine turned out to be the place that fit best for the trio.

“It’s something that happened unexpectedly,” Alyssa said of ending up on the same college team. “We’ve been playing together for a long time, and to see us all grow together and become the players we’ve become, and to get here, it’s really special to see.”

Kaylee agrees.

“It’s awesome knowing our hard work and everything we’ve put into the game has paid off,” Kaylee said.

Trine is 28-3 and set to play in the national semifinal round for the first time in school history. 

The Thunder square off against a familiar opponent Thursday night at UPMC Cooper Fieldhouse in Pittsburgh, taking on Hope (29-1), their MIAA rival, winners of 14 consecutive games and the champion of the conference.

Hope is ranked second in the nation in the D3hoops.com poll. Trine is fifth.

“It’s interesting we are playing them in the Final Four, but I think it makes it easier to prepare because we know them so well,” Trine coach Andy Rang said. “Obviously, we still look at tape and how other teams have attacked them, but having that familiarity helps. But any time you play Hope, it’s a big challenge.”

Trine and Hope are playing for the fourth time. The Thunder lost 70-61 to Hope on Dec. 18 and avenged that setback Jan. 26 with a 70-62 road win. The two teams met again for the MIAA crown a few weeks ago and Trine lost 54-50.

“It helps with the nerves knowing we’ve beat them once before, and that we are capable of doing it again,” Alyssa said. “We know what each other does, and that’s a good thing, but it also makes it tougher because we do know each other so well.”

For Trine, being here is a big deal, and having this opportunity means a little more, especially after the way the last two seasons went down for the Thunder.

In 2020, Trine advanced to the Sweet 16 and was in Maine getting set to play Bowdoin when the sports world shut down because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Last year, the Thunder had a season but it wasn’t entirely normal and there was no NCAA tourney. Their season ended with a loss to Hope in the MIAA tournament final.

“It’s really good to get back to normal and have a tournament,” Rang said. “Last year we had to wear masks and there were no fans. It was really odd. And then two years ago to have it canceled, it was something we had never seen before. We couldn’t believe it happened.

“We talk all the time about wanting the girls to leave their legacy, and they set out with a goal to get to this point and have a chance to win a national championship,” Rang said. “We’re getting closer to it.”

The Thunder don’t have that one lights-out shooter who dominates the stat sheet night in and night out. Instead, players rise to the occasion at various times.

Like Tara Bieniewicz, who scored 24 points in the Sweet 16 win over Springfield, all of those points coming off shots from beyond the arc to set a single-game school record for 3-pointers made in a game. That shooting effort also gave her the school record for 3-pointers in a season (81) at the school. She now has 84.

Bieniewicz, a D3hoops.com All-Region first-team selection, is the only player on the team averaging in double figures (11.3 points per game).

Six other players average five or more points per outing, including Kayla Wildman, a second-team D3hoops.com All-Region pick who averages 8.8 points and has made 152 career 3-pointers, the third-most all-time at Trine.

“This is the deepest team we’ve had here. No one cares who scores, who gets the spotlight. They just want to win,” Rang said. "We’ve had different players lead us in scoring, and I think that depth we have has helped us in the tournament.”

As Kaylee points out, it takes the pressure off.

“It relieves some of the stress going into a game. We know one person doesn’t have to score 20 to win,” Kaylee said. “If my shot isn’t falling, I can make the extra pass to another girl that can hit the shot. Or if things aren’t going well for us offensively, we can say ‘let’s get some stops on defense and turn that into offense.”

The connection the Argyle sisters have with Kunse, and the one Rachel Stewart and Kelsey Taylor have as former AAU teammates, has created a chemistry that can’t be coached.

“Knowing what each other does and what each other is good at is a great way to help the team. We’re all competitive and we have a lot of fun together,” Alyssa said.

This run to the Final Four has brought back a lot of memories of AAU ball for the Argyle sisters. They often find themselves reminsicing with Kunse about them.

“We were always together, in the winter, and all summer, and we’d travel a lot together or carpool together,” Alyssa said. “It was so much fun Even now, we’re like ‘do you remember this or remember that.’”

They are memories that will carry on beyond these days at Trine.

“To this day, we still talk with every single one of our AAU teammates and root them on in their college careers,” Kaylee said. “Those are friendships we will have for life, and the memories will last forever. It’s cool to look back on how much fun we had and how the time and commitment to this game has paid off.”

But it’s not over yet. Trine hopes to play two more games. And as much as this trip to Pittsburgh is about business, it’s also a chance to savor the moment.

“It’s definitely something you have to take a step back and absorb how there are 460 some teams in Division III basketball and only four are still playing,” Kaylee said. “We want to enjoy the moment and everything about this experience, and hopefully we can come out with a win at the end.”

Growing up playing AAU ball, Alyssa dreamed of one day getting this opportunity to play in a final four in college.

But did she think she’d get it? 

No. I hoped I would,” Alyssa said. “And here we are, so we have to make the most of it.”