Women's basketball team

l the work and sweat that was put into the season came down to this one moment. The women were determined not to let this moment slip away from them -- but it did.

"I think that our team played hard, but, unfortunately, we were not able to string together enough defensive stops to make the offensive runs that we needed to win the game," Zacher said

When the final buzzer sounded, the score was not what the Norwich women's basketball team had hoped for, losing 86-70 to St. Joseph's (Conn.) in a quarterfinal match.

"It wasn't our game. If we played our top game which we had been doing for a while up until that point, I think we would have been fine," said Kristine Brammer, 19, a sophomore English and education major from Littleton, N.H.

The team maintains a positive outlook and hopes to learn from its mistakes, according to one of the players.

It was a fast-paced game that the team had been preparing for. In practice the team focused on St. Joseph's style of play, a "dribble-drive motion," said head coach Mark Zacher. "We knew that we would do well offensively, as that has generally not been our problem on the season. We were, though, concerned with our defensive approach and effort."

"We were more concerned with trading bucket for bucket, we didn't have any defensive stats and when we did we would go on a run and then they would go on a run," said Karissa Doyon, 21, a senior criminal justice major from Beecher Falls, Vt.

Three seniors made a big impact on the team's success.

"This was a season in which a lot of our players ‘stepped up' their games to help our team succeed. Christine Daniels had a career season and has rightly been recognized by the GNAC as their Player-of-the-Year for her performance. Her statistics this season were more than double those of any of her previous years here at Norwich. Karissa Doyon had an all-conference season. She was a slight unknown to me as she did not play for the team last season in my first year. She provided us with a great offensive weapon at the guard position. Laurel McWilliams returned after the first semester and also had an all-conference season," Zacher said.

Freshman Kristen Brown also had a strong influence on the team.

"We work hard to recognize that basketball is a TEAM game and that our success is as a TEAM with everyone contributing and playing their role," Zacher said.

With the season over, the team can look back at what it accomplished.

"I thought it was a really good building year and I thought that our team was one of the closest teams on the Norwich campus," Brammer said.

Eyes are set on next season and the new hope that it brings.

"We are working hard to identify and attract the right players to our program who can help us continue to be successful," Zacher said.