Sarah Tarbert made a short trip from UMBC to Stevenson and has helped the Mustangs make a huge trip to the top of the Commonwealth Conference. Stevenson athletics photo

Stevenson finished 14-14 last season, and for the Mustangs, that was a pretty good year. They’d suffered through six consecutive losing seasons, five of them with seven wins or fewer.

But the Mustangs returned their entire roster. And they were expecting some key transfers this season, so hopes were much higher.

“I thought we could do a lot better than last year,” says senior guard, Kayleigh Guzek.

Guzek is one of eight seniors on this squad who’ve been part of a rapid program turnaround under fourth-year coach, Jackie Boswell, who gave up coaching a nationally competitive high school program to invest in Stevenson. “I can’t give this senior class enough credit for buying in and sticking with us,” says Bowsell. “They were freshmen my first year and they stuck with us, even though some of them don’t get a lot of playing time. When I told them we were bringing in a rookie of the year from a d1 school, I couldn’t have been more impressed with how the seniors responded.”

That impact transfer is sophomore Sarah Tarbert, who spent her freshman year at the University of Maryland-Baltimore County. You don’t often see players who have been successful at Division I choose to come to Division III (Sydney Moss at Thomas More aside), but Tarbert had the bigger picture in mind. “The coaches at UMBC were great. They really helped me be successful, but I really wanted to do nursing and obviously UMBC doesn’t offer that. It made sense to focus on my career.”

Tarbert was the America East Rookie of the Year at UMBC; she picked up right where she left off at Stevenson, leading the Mustangs in both points (18 points per game) and rebounds (10 per game). She’s helped propel the team to an impressive 21-3 record, including a 19-game winning streak that ended in the final game of the regular season with a 68-64 loss to Lebanon Valley on Saturday.

Previously, the only two losses suffered were back-to-back road losses to regionally ranked Randolph-Macon and Salisbury in November. Says Boswell, “We do our best to schedule the best out of conference games we can. We want to simulate what we’ll see in the postseason. That’s one thing we lack. We bring back a lot of players, but they don’t have a lot of postseason experience.”

It’s always interesting to explore chemistry issues with the addition of a big-time transfer, especially when the team returns all of its players – someone is losing a starting spot – but the Stevenson program takes a different perspective on improving from year to year. According to Boswell, “We have a philosophy that two things need to happen each year: the players returning need to get better and we need to bring in better players. Then we let everyone duke it out on the floor.” Adds Guzek, “We just want to play well – any way to make the team better.”

Bringing in new players may be a concern for next year, with four of the top seven players graduating. “We’re not necessarily looking to replace all eight seniors – we do have a 17-man roster – but we have key players to replace,” notes Boswell, “We’re very comfortable with what’s coming back. We know what they can do – not everyone else does, since they haven’t had the opportunity to show it in games, but we see it every day at practice. We’re looking forward to giving them an opportunity to show what they can do.”

Before they get there, though, there is the matter of post-season play to deal with. Stevenson is in an enviable position, gaudy record, senior leadership, and a near perfect conference record in a competitive Commonwealth Conference. But it may be that final game loss that makes the difference going forward. “We take it one day at a time. I tell the team we can’t be afraid to lose, when you start thinking that way bad things can happen.” I’m sure Coach Boswell doesn’t like to lose, but getting one out of the way right before things become more serious could help her players remember this sage advice.

After all, nothing in D-III  is a given. Teams are competitive in conference tournaments, even more so when we get to the NCAAs. Take it from Tarbert, someone in a unique position to know, “I see very little difference between my d1 competition and d3. I still have to play hard and try my best every game. Every game is tough.”

Tarbert, Boswell, and this Stevenson squad have come a long way, but in many ways, the journey is just now beginning.

Upsets already

Most of the conference tournaments will happen later this week, but the CUNYAC got started early with an upset win by York (N.Y.) over Staten Island. It was the 4-5 game, but Staten Island finished three games ahead of York and won both regular season meetings. Even more impressive, York has been playing without its pre-season All-American, Omar St. John since late January. The Cardinals got 29 and 11 from forward Jaron Williams and advance to play Baruch in the semifinals. Staten Island has been at the bottom of the Atlantic Region rankings; this loss likely knocks them out of NCAA contention.

Sweeping the Skyline

The Farmingdale State women completed an undefeated Skyline schedule with a 72-63 win over Sage on Saturday. At 17-8 overall, the Rams played a tough non-conference schedule and have the bruises to prove it. That gauntlet may help them in the NCAAs, but they have to get through a conference tournament first; they face Mount St. Mary on Thursday.

Milestones

St. Mary’s Nick Laguerre went over 1,500 points this week. Malique Killing of Muhlenberg began the season with a good chance to hit 2,000. The season didn’t turn out quite as expected, but he managed to score his 1,900th point on the last shot of a very successful career. On the women’s side, Camry Green of Christopher Newport went over 1,000 rebounds this week, joining the 1k-1k club (she hit her 1,000th point earlier in the season).

Regional Ranking roundup

For the women, there was little drama last week. This week was the opposite. In the Mid-Atlantic, Salisbury, Stevenson, McDaniel, and Muhlenberg all lost this week. In the Atlantic, Richard Stockton lost a close one to Montclair, Rowan lost two games, and Baruch beat Brooklyn to complete an undefeated CUNYAC schedule. In men’s action, William Patterson lost, Staten Island lost twice, and Brooklyn beat Baruch. For the Mid-Atlantic, F&M lost to Gettysburg then beat Dickinson, while Catholic lost to Scranton.

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