CKSR (Women's Basketball Defeats Trine 86-50/Two Trios of Sisters Make Big Impact With Calvin Women's Basketball Program)

CALVIN KNIGHT SPORTS REPORT FOR FEB. 4, 2013

Women's Basketball Defeats Trine 86-50;
Two Trios of Sisters Make Big Impact for Calvin Women's Basketball Program

WOMEN'S BASKETBALL
Calvin 86, Trine 50

By Mark DeHaan

The Calvin women hosted a rare Monday night conference game at Van Noord Arena
against Trine University after it was postponed from Saturday. The Knights had
no trouble diverging from their normal schedule, taking the early lead and
never giving it up on their way to an 86-50 victory.

Senior Ally Wolffis got out to a strong start for the Knights, scoring their
first four points. Trine senior Sydney Spragg, who had missed the first
Calvin-Trine meeting and is the second leading scorer in the MIAA, responded
with five of her own to give the Thunder the 5-4 lead two minutes in.

A 10-2 run then gave Calvin a 14-6 lead as the Knights utilized their height
advantage in the post.
The teams then battled back and forth before Calvin began to pull away.
Back-to-back three-points by seniors Kelsey Irwin and Logan Marsh with just
over three minutes remaining gave the Knights strong momentum heading toward
halftime. Over the final three and a half minutes, Calvin outscored Trine 13-1
to take a 41-20 lead into the break.

Senior Carissa Verkaik led all players with 13 points and seven rebounds while
Wolffis added 11 points and five boards. Sophomore Kayla Engelhard tallied
seven assists. Spragg struggled with foul trouble after her early five points,
seeing limited action in the remainder of the first half and throughout much of
the second.

Out of the break, it was all Knights. Eight quick points from sophomore
Breanna Verkaik and eight points from senior Julia Hilbrands helped Calvin open
up a 66-29 advantage.

The Knights coasted the rest of the way as all the players saw significant
playing time en route to an 86-50 final score.

Carissa Verkaik led all scorers with 20 points while adding nine rebounds.�
Wolffis had 11 points and five boards while Breanna Verkaik and Hilbrands each
finished with ten. Trine was led on offense by Kelsey Henselmeier who had 11
points while Kelcey Swisher added ten. Spragg finished with seven points.

“I was happy with the way we played. We had a really good last four minutes of
the first half and the first four minutes of the second half we played really
well,” said head coach John Ross. “We defended incredibly well as they only had
two offensive rebounds. I was really happy and pleased with our play today.”

The Knights now move to 12-0 in the MIAA and 19-1 overall, while Trine drops
to 5-7 in conference and 11-10 overall. Calvin now has a quick turnaround
before its next contest as the Knights travel down to Notre Dame, IN, Wednesday
night to face the Belles of Saint Mary's. Tip-off is scheduled for 7:30 p.m.

MIAA WOMEN’S BASKETBALL STANDINGS THROUGH 2-4-12 GAMES

Calvin 12-0
Hope 12-1
Olivet 10-3
Alma 5-7
Trine 5-7
Adrian 4-8
Albion 4-8
Saint Mary’s 3-10
Kalamazoo 1-12

MORE WOMEN’S BASKETBALL

EDITOR’S NOTE: during the month of January, Grand Rapids Christian High School
junior Gina de Haan was a student intern in the Calvin sports information
office through an intern exchange program with Grand Rapids Christian High
School entitled “Winterim.” As part of her internship, de Haan produced a
feature story on two trios of sisters that have made a big impact with the
Calvin women’s basketball program.

To read her feature story which features the Post and Verkaik sisters, visit
the Calvin website at:
http://www.calvin.edu/sports/news/comments/two-trios-of-sisters-are-part-of-proud-tradition-in-calvin-womens-basketbal/
Received on Mon Feb 4 22:07:59 2013