By Mark DeHaan
Coming off just its second loss of the season at the hands of rival Hope, the #3 Calvin women's basketball team looked like a team with something to prove in its MIAA Tournament semifinal against Trine Wednesday evening. The Knights took the early lead and did not look back, building a double-digit advantage and cruising to the 83-48 victory. Calvin advances to the MIAA Tournament Championship game on Saturday and will host rival Hope at 3 p.m. at Van Noord Arena.
Calvin started the game with strong defense, holding the Thunder without a field goal until there was 11:19 remaining in the first half, building a 16-3 lead. Trine attempted 15 field goals during those opening minutes and Calvin totaled five blocks in that span.
The Knights continued to run away from Trine as the Thunder remained cold from the field. With 4:06 remaining, Calvin led 30-6, shooting 12-for-25 from the field while Trine was 1-for-26.
The Knights took a 40-11 lead into the break. Senior Carissa Verkaik had 10 points and eight rebounds at half while junior Kirstin Tripp and senior Kelsey Irwin each added six. Calvin ended the half with a 32-16 rebounding advantage while shooting 16-for-33 from the field. The Thunder shot 3-for-32 in the opening half.
Looking to get back into the game, Trine utilized the full-court press out of the intermission. The Thunder forced the Knights into a few early errors before head coach John Ross used a time out to settle his team down.
Calvin saw contributions from all the members of its roster as every player entered the scoring column. The Knights then took their largest lead of the game with 4:18 remaining at 71-32.
Verkaik led all scorers with 18 points while adding 11 rebounds. On her first rebound of the game, Verkaik became Calvin's all-time leader in rebounds. Verkaik now holds the all-time records in points, rebounds, and blocked shots. Verkaik also boosted her career scoring total to 2,190 points, moving her into 19th place on the all-time NCAA Division III scoring list.
Sophomore Hannah Acre chipped in nine points for the Knights while Tripp, sophomore Abby VanderWoude and senior Julia Hilbrands all scored eight points with Hilbrands grabbing eight rebounds as well.
Trine was led in defeat by Kelsey Henselmeier who scored 14 points. Megan Loveberry added 10 for the Thunder.
"(Defense) is something that we really put an emphasis on. We're really going to have to step up our defense if we're going to make a run at the end of the season. We contested a lot of shots, and holding them to 11 points (in the first half) was really good," said head coach John Ross. "(Against Hope on Saturday) we have to play defense for 40 minutes, we have to take care of the ball and rebound. We're going to have to learn from our mistakes, try to put out our best performance of the year on Saturday because that is what we're going to need to beat them."
Hope, now ranked second in the nation, and Calvin, ranked third, meet for the third time this year. The teams split the regular season series 1-1 with each team winning at home. The game will be played at Calvin's Van Noord Arena with the tip-off scheduled for 3 p.m. Saturday's meeting will mark the eighth meeting between Calvin and Hope in the MIAA Tournament title game. Hope holds a 5-2 edge in the seven prior meetings but Calvin has won the last two title tilts against the Flying Dutch.