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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Scotty Sports Corner, February 13, 2001
By Hollis Duncan
St. Margaret's School Staff Writer
Varsity Basketball, Soccer Head to LIS Tourney as No. 4 Seeds
Tappahannock, VA (February 5, 2001) - Tappahannock, VA (February 12, 2001) - St. Margaret's varsity sports teams are heading into the winter League of Independent Schools tournaments this week, and anything can happen.
Senior co-captain Sara Newman of White Stone and the rest of the St. Margaret's varsity basketball team are entering the League of Independent Schools tournament with a positive attitude. SMS defeated Christchurch in its last regular season game on February 6, 52-26. Fola Ogundiran scored 19 points and Kristina Bethea scored 10 to secure the Scotty victory.
"Throw out the numbers, the seeds, the statistics. None of those matter anymore," said Varsity Basketball Coach and SMS Athletic Director Sue Saunders. "You go to play, and you play to win."
Basketball, at 2-6 in the league and 5-10 overall, is seeded fourth heading into the championships. But Saunders remains optimistic, because most St. Margaret's losses have been in highly competitive games against strong opponents. The Scotties are favored to win the opening round against No. 5 seed St. Vincent's on February 13 at Ball Memorial Gymnasium on the SMS campus.
"We were just one or two breaks away from a banner-winning regular season and we are not going to back down. I think we might surprise a lot of people, but not ourselves," Saunders said.
The even-keeled varsity soccer team, 6-5 overall, 5-5 LIS, finished the regular season ranked fourth in the league. Head Coach Rodney Watkins points out that the 5-5 standing could have just as easily been 9-1, or perfect at 10-0. Plagued by nagging injuries, unlucky breaks, and a half-dozen games decided by two points or less, Watkins is confident that the team will play hard in the tournament.
The soccer Scotties are picked to win over first-round opponent Trinity on February 13 at the Essex Intermediate School Field, and likely will advance to play St. Anne's-Belfield in the Wednesday semifinal.
The junior varsity basketball team finished the winter season 2-5 overall and 1-3 LIS. It was the first time that many girls had played competitively, Head Coach David Cook noted, and they made real progress in learning and mastering the fundamentals. As freshman boarding student Elisha Cooper exclaimed at season's end, "Coach, I am in love with the game of basketball!"
