For its first full season in the North Coast Atheletic Conference, the women's basketball team showed no shyness in proving its a force to be reckoned with.
The squad won the NCAC, received an NCAA tournament automatic berth and three members of the team received post-season accolades.
The 4th-ranked Tigers (26-1) sealed their first-ever NCAC conference tournament championship Saturday night against Denison (20-8) by a score of 61-41.
On Monday, senior Katie Aldrich was named the NCAC women's basketball player of the year. Aldrich, who was first on the team in points with 11.6 points per game and second in rebounds with 6.3 rebounds per game, adds this honor to her NCAC tournament Most Outstanding Player award earned after DePauw's conference win on Saturday.
Kris Huffman, who now has 16 conference titles in her 19-year career as DePauw women's basketball head coach, was named the NCAC women's basketball Coach of the Year. In the team's first year in the NCAC, the Tiger's went 16-0 in conference play. Huffman now has an overall record of 403-101 in her coaching career.
Sophomore guard Ali Ross also received first-team All-NCAC honors.
The conference win guaranteed the 26-1 Tigers a spot in the NCAA Div. III national tournament, which was announced Monday. The team was happy to learn its conference championship and national reputation has earned the team a No. 1 seed in the tournament.
The Tigers will host Westminster College (22-4) from Missouri in the first round. The No. 1 seed secures a home-court advantage for the Tigers for the first and second rounds of the tournament.
The game on Friday will mark the DePauw women's basketball team's ninth straight trip to the NCAA Div. III Championship and 13th in the last 17 years. The Tigers won the championship in 2007 over Washington University in St. Louis.
The Tigers began their successful weekend with a Friday night 69-52 win against Wittenberg (14-12) in what was the second of two semi-final games played at Neal Fieldhouse. DePauw grabbed the boards and momentum early, and fought off a feisty Wittenberg team after couple second half-runs put the visitors in a double-digit deficit that was never closed by less than 12 points.
Ross lead the team in points on the night scoring 16, including a perfect 100 percent on three point attempts in the second half. Freshman Savannah Trees tallied 13 points while Aldrich completed another double-double with 10 points and a career-high-equaling 13 rebounds.
Ross and freshman Emma Ondik dished three assists each and the Tigers ended Wittenberg's season. The team enjoyed the win, but not too much as they prepared to take on 20-8 Denison in the NCAC championship the next day.
Saturday was another display of the Tiger's consistent big time play in big time games. The Big Red, who fell to DePauw 58-45 in December and 63-37 in January, looked to avenge the previous results. In the game that determined the NCAC automatic seed to the NCAA Div. III national tournament, only one team showed up to play.
The Tigers sealed the conference championship with a 61-41 victory. The Tigers dethroned Denison, who won the past two NCAC championships.
In the game, Aldrich notched her second straight double- double with 12 points and 11 rebounds. Ross also added 10 points.
Trees, whose offensive numbers boosted the Tigers all year, explained how exciting it is to play on this championship team.
"Playing on a team with so much talent has been such a great experience. Everyday in practice is so competitive and everyone is constantly making each other better," Trees said.
Trees explained that while the win is nice, the team expects to be successful and trains for it every day.
"I knew coming into DePauw that the women's basketball team had always been very successful so I expected the team to carry on that tradition. We have had great season so far and our hope that it will continue throughout the NCAA tournament," Trees said.
NCAC player-of-the-year Aldrich hopes to continue her team's hot streak into the NCAA Tournament.
"The momentum is definitely still there. This is the most exciting time of the year, and it's easy to feel that excitement from every player on the team," Aldrich said. "There's only a week between the conference tournament and the NCAA's, so there's actually not that much time to prepare for our next competition."
When asked how she was able to succeed offensively so efficiently this year, Aldrich was quick to point out her teammates.
"Our team is deep and everyone is able to contribute something offensively," Aldrich said. "We had a lot of confidence going into the weekend, and our plan was to be even more aggressive on both sides of the floor. For me, I knew teams weren't going to allow many points in the paint, so I was more aggressive with the ball and got points off of put-backs."
The Tigers have a small rest ahead before they begin an NCAA Tournament on Friday night at Neal Fieldhouse against Westminster. The other first round game of the evening features 23rd ranked Wisconsin-Whitewater (22-6) against Carthage College (20-7).
— Joseph Fanelli contributed to this story.