Bisons target NCAA championship; Women's basketball team at Nichols learns from early losses.Byline: Kevin O'Malley DUDLEY - Nichols College The Nichols College sports teams, known as the Bison (men) and the Lady Bison (women) are the pride of their hometown of Dudley in Massachusetts. History It was founded in 1815 as Nichols Academy. The founder was Amasa Nichols, a wealthy industrialist in Dudley, MA. women's basketball Women's basketball is one of the few games which developed in tandem with men's. It became popular, spreading from the east coast of the United States to the west coast, in large part via women's colleges. coach Natalie Soffen knows she will be hearing plenty of crying following this season as she expects the birth of a baby girl in late March, but she hopes the Bisons won't be shedding any tears until then. "Our goal, our ultimate goal is to reach the NCAAs," she said. "At the beginning of the year, our goals were holding opponents to a certain amount of points and reaching the NCAAs." After dropping two of its first three games, Nichols regrouped and bounced back to run off a school-record 19 wins, heading the lessons they learned in their two early season losses. "I think the two losses brought us back to ground zero again. We went into practice Oct. 20 thinking we were good," said Soffen. "After the losses we started to put things together, and our defense decided to step it up, too. It was great to beat our previous record from two or three years ago, but if it continues, we've got to continue it through the playoffs." It's been nearly three months since Soffen last had to suffer through a loss, making her maternity that much more tolerable. "It's actually been pretty good," she said of coaching straight through her pregnancy. "Winning definitely helps and I have three assistant coaches who are great and the staff and faculty are great, but I am due March 27th so the hardest part is coming up." Nichols closes out its regular season on Feb. 21 with a match-up with Commonwealth Coast Conference rival University of New England The University of New England can refer to:
A very speculative grade assigned to a debt obligation by a rating agency. Such a rating indicates default or considerable doubt that interest will be paid or principal repaid. Also called Caa. tournament play with a home game Feb. 24. "I want to get to the NCAAs, so we have to win our conference tournament," said Soffen, who is unsure if her squad would get an at-large bid An at-large bid is a bid or berth in a sporting tournament granted by invitation, not right. This term is most commonly used in the United States to refer to berths that the NCAA grants in its annual Division I men's and women's basketball tournaments, although at-large berths are if it didn't win the tournament. "I don't know Don't know (DK, DKed) "Don't know the trade." A Street expression used whenever one party lacks knowledge of a trade or receives conflicting instructions from the other party. really how it works, but I don't think I've ever seen a New England New England, name applied to the region comprising six states of the NE United States—Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut. The region is thought to have been so named by Capt. team make it. We don't want to rely on somebody else when we can rely on ourselves." Nichols has been relying on senior captain MaryLynn Skarzenski, who became the 11th Bison 1,000-point scorer last November, to lead the way to a CCC title. Skarzenski already owns the record for both games played and games started at the school in addition to her career assists and steals records. "MaryLynn is an extension of me on court," said second-year coach Soffen, a 2004 Nichols grad. "She can run our offense, run our defense; she's going to make a great coach someday. She knows exactly what she wants to do on the court." Skarzenski has led the Bisons to the CCC tournament semifinals each of the last three seasons, but Soffen hopes to see that streak stop this season and feels the team has the defense required to win a championship. Last year, Nichols finished with a remarkable 21-8 record, but came up short in both postseason tournaments, losing to Western New England College Western New England College is a private, independent, coeducational college founded in 1919. Located on a classical 215 acre suburban campus in Springfield, Massachusetts, the College serves approximately 4,000 students on its main campus and at six satellite sites within in the conference semifinals and Fitchburg State in the semifinals of the ECAC ECAC Eastern College Athletic Conference ECAC European Civil Aviation Conference ECAC Exceptional Children's Assistance Center (Davidson, NC, USA) ECAC Electromagnetic Compatibility Analysis Center ECAC Estimated Cost At Completion tournament. "Defense is something we've been preaching since Oct. 20 and everybody knows they have to step up defensively," added Soffen. "We just mix it up. We always mix up our defense." Nichols demonstrated its defensive prowess earlier this month in a record-setting, 55-point rout of Anna Maria, holding the Amcats to just 23 points. "We're not capable of putting up 80 points, but 1 through 11 can all really defend," said Soffen. "We can put pretty decent numbers up at the offensive end, but it's key to get turnovers and get quick points." ART: PHOTOS PHOTOG pho·tog n. Informal A person who takes photographs, especially as a profession; a photographer. : (1 AND 3) SUBMITTED PHOTO; (2) T&G File Photo/STEVE LANAVA CUTLINE: (1) Nichols coach Natalie Soffen studies the action on the court. (2) MaryLynn Skarzenski, shown during a practice, is the team's senior captain. (3) The Bisons huddle. |
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