Lakeland Mirror

Issue date: 3/1/07 Section: Sports

Media Credit: Brian Moser Brenda Paulson powers the ball up against Marian on Feb 17. The Muskies won the game 57-50. Lakeland ended their season last weekend with a first round playoff loss to Benedictine.

Danielle Druanceau pulls down a rebound with Amanda Thielman in the 57-50 victory over Marian on senior day.

When the Lakeland women's basketball team lost to Benedictine in the first round of the Northern Athletics Conference tournament last Monday, it marked the first time in head coach April Arvan's 13-year tenure that the program did not reach the finals.

But Arvan will not say it was a disappointment.

"We always want to be number one," said Arvan, "but going into this year, there were a lot of unknowns. It was a question of whether we were going to be able to put points on the board, and we graduated a lot of scoring the last few years, so we went into an offensive slump this year. When we did score points, we were a team to be reckoned with."

Scoring most of the points was senior Jenna Boehm, who finished just one point shy of 400. In fact, she was the only Muskie to average more than 10 points at 15.4 and was the only one placed on the All-NAC team. She also finished seventh in the nation in field goal percentage, sinking 58.9 percent of her shots.

Lakeland's next highest point scorer was Danielle Duranceau, who averaged nine points per game and was an Honorable Mention for the All-NAC Team.

Even so, Lakeland managed to record yet another winning season under Arvan with a 15-11 record and 12-7 conference record, good enough for sixth place in the inaugural season for the NAC.

Despite its offensive struggles, the team was helped by its defensive efforts, ranking second only to conference champion Concordia (Wis.) in the NAC with just 54.7 points allowed per game.

Not bad considering the team started three freshmen for its season opener.

"It was challenging trying to stay consistent with a younger team," said Arvan. "I know what to expect from our juniors and seniors, but the unknown is in a freshman class, and when you rely on a freshman class, things are going to be a little inconsistent."

KC Blahnik was among the most consistent of the freshmen. Blahnik was the team's third-leading scorer coming off the bench for much the season and placing herself on the NAC's All-Rookie Team.

Fellow freshman Megan Chart was ignored by All-Conference voters despite starting every game but the tournament game at point guard. Chart averaged five points per game and led the team with 58 assists.

"Both [Blahnik and Chart] exceeded my expectations," said Arvan. "When they become upperclassmen, this is going to be a special group. Our entire freshman class has a lot of promise."

Aside from the work done by the freshmen, Arvan said the season's biggest surprise could've been Kasey Gussert, a sophomore guard who emerged at the end of the season as a potential big time scorer.

In the season's final five games, Gussert averaged 13.6 points, including a 23-point explosion at Wisconsin Lutheran in which she connected on five three pointers in just the second start of her collegiate career.

"She added a little offensive punch that we needed at that point in the season," said Arvan of Gussert. "She was forced to battle back from a couple injuries at the beginning of the season."

The team will now move forward to next season, having now graduated four more players into the history books.

"I'm very proud of the seniors (Boehm, Duranceau, Amanda Thielmann, and Stacy Kraemer)," Arvan said. "They've gotten to the NCAA Tournament and gotten to cut down the nets at home.

"There are definitely improvements we'll make and strengths we'll improve on for next season."

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