Thanksgiving is over and Christmas is just around the corner and everyone knows what that means…Christmas Music! Here at Gordon our team celebrates this time of year in style with a phenomenal mix of Christmas music ranging from Taylor Swift to Mariah Carey to Mannheim Steamroller. If anyone is interested in creating a similarly stellar mix, you can see our playlist here.

Not only does this time of year mean great music, it also begins round two of the Division III college basketball season. Despite only being allowed to play 25 regular season games, DIII teams still find it necessary to play three games per week on a regular basis. This is due to the commitment most schools make to facilitate the entire student-athlete experience. Because of this the DIII hoops season is divided into four neatly packed segments. Round one falls between the start of the season and Thanksgiving break. I will fondly refer to this as The Middle School Dance Period, because all teams are excited to be there, yet nervous about its prospects and most teams are not quite sure how good their moves are just yet. I call the second period, which contains the games crammed between Thanksgiving and finals, The Redneck Doublewide Period. This is because there are a few too many games, packed in a little too short of a time period, and you must become pretty comfortable with who you are because people are going to start seeing your flaws. The third period, called The Pre-Party Party Period, comes; yep you guessed it, right after Christmas and contains the post-new year’s tournament and any preparatory games before conference play. At this point of the season most teams convene at a central location to see teams they wouldn’t normally play and show off a little bit before the big show. The fourth and final period of the season is what all of the teams prepare for all season long; the conference season, or as I like to call it, The Family Reunion. By this point in the season there are no secrets. Sometimes, you even know things you would rather not know.  (Disclaimer: In no way are these metaphors directed at any member of my own family. I love you all and can’t wait to see you over Christmas.) Teams are forced to spend time with the people that know them best and everything becomes a competition. Some teams are like the cousin you don’t really talk to but acknowledge out of necessity at family functions. No good or bad blood exists here, but common affiliation forces your acquaintance. Some teams are like the annoying little nephew who would like nothing better than to be like you, and you would like nothing better than for them to go away. Alas, they never do. Another class of relative is the one you respect, and maybe even enjoy their company, yet at the end of the day it is important to leave feeling that you’re just flat superior.  However there are a select few who act as the relative who has constantly battled you for attention your entire life. You pretend their successes and failures aren’t important, but they are. You make sure to bring up their most embarrassing moments at the most inopportune times. Honestly, these are the people you really look forward to seeing. Family Reunion time is the opportunity to outshine and prove to everyone that you are the prized child and deserve the attention. In this case the attention desired is that of the NCAA Tournament.  (I realize I left out the post-season, but let’s not put the cart before the horse.  We’ll address that in due time.)

Having recently completed the Middle School Dance Period, our team has compiled a 4-2 record. Our first loss was a disappointing one to a strong Westfield State team in a game where we shot a scorching 28 percent from the field. This loss was not due to a lack of effort, intensity, or defense. The only way to lose a game in which you hold your opponent to 54 points is to shoot poorly, and that we did. Our three Middle School Dance wins came against last year’s NAC champion Husson, a hard working Maine Maritime squad, and a participant in last year’s Sweet 16 Salem State. To give you some perspective on the Salem State win, the last time Gordon College beat the Vikings, Charlie Weis was considered a valuable coaching commodity. It’s been a while. Tuesday night began The Redneck Doublewide with a home victory over Eastern Nazarene College. It was important to start this portion of our season off strong in order to build some momentum heading into a great rivalry game against Endicott College. Unfortunately we were unable to sustain any momentum we had created Tuesday night and fell 70-67 to our rivals. We trailed by 18 points with ten minutes remaining in the game and fought our way back to take the lead with two minutes remaining. Despite this, we were unable to finish our comeback and ultimately fell to the Gulls. After a tough loss a team can find out a lot about their character. I am confident in our team’s character and our ability to bounce back in the face of adversity. We have two remaining games this semester against currently undefeated MIT and one-loss Wheelock. This portion of the non-conference season is extremely important as top teams begin to separate themselves from the rest of the pack. In order to consider ourselves among the region’s top teams we must represent ourselves well against other high quality opponents. The rest of the Redneck Doublewide Period gives us an opportunity to do that. If we play disciplined, hard-nosed basketball every possession over the next week I am confident we will be happy with where we stand heading into the Pre-Party Party Period.

Hello fans and basketball enthusiasts, my name is Ashley Hostert and I am a sophomore, captain for the Lady Prairiewolves of Nebraska Wesleyan University. Nebraska Wesleyan is located in Lincoln, NE just a short drive from University of Nebraska-Lincoln and the Cornhuskers. Nebraska Wesleyan University is a wonderful school that attracted me initially through their incredible academic programs, comforting campus, caring professors, and pure excitement of developing student-athletes, who after four years at the institution would leave ready to conquer their goals.

Last year, as a freshman, my teammates and I saw our team undergo many changes. Approximately a month before the official, first day of practice, we did not have a head coach on campus. However, by September 20^th Coach Eric Jensen had accepted the job and moved his family to Lincoln to take over the Women’s Basketball program at Wesleyan. Coach Jensen brought his own style of playing and coaching. As with any changes, there are always ups and downs and last season provided its fair share of both. However, no matter how high or how low our team may have gotten Coach continued to instill in us his main philosophy, “TWW: Together We Win.” Nebraska Wesleyan’s Women’s Basketball program may not have been a threat in the past, but together we could accomplish whatever we aspire to and after hearing that day in and out, we began to believe it.

This season holds endless and exciting possibilities for our team. Originally, bringing in 15 new talented freshmen and having no seniors on the team, we look to be young, however with the basis of our core values, we are looking to be an unforeseen threat every time we step on the floor. Building the women’s basketball program at Nebraska Wesleyan to a championship level program has been our team’s motivation since the end of last season. We have set our eyes on reaching the national tournament and nothing will detract us from our vision.

As the first month of practice comes to a close and opening weekend is at the end of this week, the anticipation is high. The unique thing about our team’s situation is that we are a DIII independent team. Meaning our possibilities of making a national tournament birth, are mainly based on the few DIII games that we play during the season because we do not play in a qualifying tournament at the end of the year like most other DIII teams. This year four of our seven DIII games happen in the first two weeks of season, so it is very important for us to come out of the gates firing and ready to prove that we can compete with the best. Our opening tournament is at Cornell College, November 20^th and 21^st, there we will play Cornell College and Edgewood College. We saw neither team last year in DIII action, but with the help of our coaching staff’s scouting and preparation, we will be more than ready to step on the floor on Friday and Saturday to demonstrate the fruits of our labor from the last month of practice. Not only are our few DIII games very important, but we also play in the most competitive NAIA Division II Conference, the GPAC. Ranked very low in the preseason, our team has been fired up about the lack of people taking our team seriously and it is in the back of our minds every day that we will be the surprise underdog this year. Teams will regret not taking us seriously.

As a team we chose core values to exemplify us and what we want from our program. Every day that our team practices, every day that we stand side by side sweating and grinding out even the worst drills those values shine through everyone just a little more. Right now I am very proud of the effort and commitment our team has shown so far and cannot wait to get the season rolling so we can prove what we are capable of. Nebraska Wesleyan’s Women’s Basketball will be turning heads. Good luck to all the other DIII teams starting their seasons, we wish you the best!

God Bless, Ashley Hostert