Shining hopes for the future

Story by Rick A. Cumings

Th e Liberty Baptist College women's basketball team began itsseason on a winning note,fought valliantly toplayits opponents even-up through the firsthalfof the season and then struggled to regainits winning ways during a disappointing second half

Although the Lady Flames finished with a 7-17 win-loss record, thenumbers don't begin to tellthe story of the season True, there were more dim spots than bright

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Shining hopes

(continued from page 86) ones, but the bright areas brought shining hopes forthe future

The women's team started offits season with a bang, winning its first game by handily defeating Randolph-Macon College ofAshland,Va.,84-73 The scoring pattern for the restofthe season wasset as freshman forward Beth Ralph led the Lady Flames with 16 pointsand 9 rebounds. She was tolead thescoring attack in 14of their 24 games andshe scored indouble figures in 21

The women then beat back a testy Roanoke College squad intheLBCgym,67-62. It looked liketheLady Flames might catch fire and burn quite a few opponents, but they fizzled inthenext twogames,losing decisively toWake Forest University, 8870,and toGeorge Mason University, 89-66

The team managed tostay even in its next several games, reaching .500 for the lasttimeatsixwinsagainst sixlosses The sixth winwasa squeaker against Virginia Commonwealth University,81-77.

From there,the Lady Flames went ona seven-game losing skid,dropping contests to the likes of George Mason University again, William & Mary, Radford College, the University of Richmond andRandolphMacon,which gained revenge forits earlier defeat

The skid stopped when the women walloped Virginia Commonwealth University for the second time, 57-49. They then closed outtheregular season dropping a heartbreaker to powerful in-state foe Virginia Tech, 78-74.

In post-season play, the Lady Flames placed fourth intheVirginia Association of Inter-Collegiate Athletic Women's Division II (VAIAW) state tournament, losing to Hampton Institute, 67-57, and another hard-fought nail-biterto the College ofWilliam and Mary,62-59.

Although the season didn't turn outperhaps likeCoach Linda Farver wanted it to, several bright spots didspringup.

One was the experience gained by a very young team. In fact, theteam was consistently led by freshmen and sophomores who competed remarkably well against seasoned, older teams throughout the year

Beth Ralph, a 5'11" freshman forward from Wilmington, Del., brought LBC hope for the future assheledthe team in scoring with a 13.0 average. Shewasalso the top rebounder onthe team with a6.6 average.The only other Lady Flame toaverage in double figures was sophomore guard Penny Ervin at11.3

These two were joined by sophomores Malynda Hamersley and Trish Harrisand freshman Sheila Ford inproviding the offensive power throughout the year

Another particularly bright spot was the Lady Flames' free throw shooting. As a team, they averaged 68.4% from thecharity stripe, tops in the VAIAW DivisionII Conference

Four of the girls averaged better than 70% on the season,including six-footcenter Hamersley (72.5%), 5'6" guard Ford (73.6%), Ralph (72.6%)and Ervin (72.7%). Pam Dwyer set a team record,connecting on 21 consecutive free throws

Numerous records were broken as the young crop of women gained valuable playing time andexperience

The most pointsscored inaseason for a sophomore and a freshman player were broken by Pam Dwyer (272) and Beth Ralph (333) respectively. Ralph also tied the record for hitting 12 out of 14 free throw attempts in a single game against Roanoke College She also captured the dubioustitle ofcollecting95 personalfouls over the season

Dwyer set a record by playing all40 exhausting minutesagainst Longwood College, while Sheila Ford pitched-in a 39:56 effort against Randolph-Macon Dwyer finished theseason byputting in792 minutes and 21 seconds of playing time, another record

As a team, records forthe most field goals (42 versus Randolph-Macon),the most freethrows made/attempted ina single game (27/38), andthe best free throw shooting percentage in a single game (18/20 — 90% against Longwood College) were set.

Among thehighlightsoftheseason were Beth Ralph's 26 points against theUniversity of Richmond; Pam Dwyer's seven steals out of a team total of 18 against Roanoke College; four blocked shots by Tracie Wooldridge against Randolph-Macon;andTrish Harris' 20rebounds against the University ofMaryland-BC.

However you look at the season,one thing is forsure.Allthe prospects fornext year are glowing. With several record settingletter-winnersback with asolid yearof top-level competition behind them, LBC will begin toonce again be theplacefor women's basketball players to excel