As the season comes to an end, SUNY New Paltz’s women’s basketball team is headed into the State University of New York Athletic Conference (SUNYAC) with a total of 14 wins and only one loss.
On Feb. 11 the Hawks were ranked number one in the latest NCAA Division III Region III poll. The Hawks secured the top seed in Regional III with Vassar, Skidmore, Ithaca, St. John Fisher, Nazareth and Cortland following them in the polls. Additionally, they were projected as the twelfth seed, by D3hoops in the NCAA Tournament, on the evening of Feb. 15.
Fourth-year guard/forward Brianna Fitzgerald achieved a triple-double, which was the third time in program history and the first time since 1999.
“It’s pretty much anybody’s game at this point, so we’re definitely not taking anything lightly. But very excited to get the regular season completed and then head into playoffs,” said Fitzgerald.
Fitzgerald was named D3Hoops team of the week honor on Feb. 6 for the second time in Fitzgerald’s career Fitzgerald has also been named fourth SUNYAC women’s basketball weekly honor.
Fitzgerald said, “I feel like I’m just playing. Coach really kind of stacked our non-conference schedule with really good teams, so I feel like that has really prepared us to feel comfortable in uncomfortable situations whereas last year, we won so many of our games by a 20-30-point margin that we were very comfortable, very relaxed. We’d just go out there, win by 30 and leave. So when the games were getting tough and those close-score situations happened, we weren’t fully prepared.”
Graduate student and forward Gabby Palladino is the program’s all-time winningest player, having won 88 games total in her career. “When I was a freshman, the seniors were the winningest players, so it’s cool that now I’m one of them,” Palladino said.
Palladino said, “I think that we’re a lot more confident this year just in ourselves, in playing in those uncomfortable situations.”
James Seward is in his seventeenth season as head coach of the women’s basketball team. Seward remarked upon the success of his team in the 2023-2024 season.
Seward said, “We played just about every Tuesday, Friday and Saturday for five weeks straight so it’s been a little bit tough. We haven’t had a whole lot of sustained practice time. We’re just trying to figure out what little things we need to tweak or details we need to continue to iron out.”
On Friday Feb. 16 the Hawks got their thirteenth win in a row, with the final score 65-55, over SUNY Plattsburgh. The Hawks bumped up to 21-3 overall and secured 16-1 in SUNYACs with the win.
Despite some rough patches in the first half, the Hawks made a comeback in the second half. Fitzgerald got a three point play and layed two, which put the Hawks in the lead. The Plattsburgh Cardinals got ahead for a bit, until fourth-year forward Semaiah Williams scored a three-pointer for the Hawks to wrap up the game.
Seward reflected on this seasons’ success for the team. “Our record is strong. There are a couple of teams with better records. For example, Vassar’s only had one loss, but we were the one team that beat them,” Seward said.
The following day, Saturday Feb. 17 the Hawks took on SUNY Potsdam where they secured their fourteenth consecutive win, 60-59, to close out the end of the regular season.
The Hawks were ahead of the Potsdam Bears leading into halftime, until the roles reversed and the Bears were winning in the second half. The Bears maintained their lead, until fourth-year guard Julia Sabatino created the four-point cushion that put the Hawks ahead. Though the Bears managed to get another in, the Hawks took their victory.
Seward said “It’s a big mark in college basketball; the 20 wins. So, to be able to put us over that threshold for the number of years that we have, definitely says a lot about the type of people that we have been able to have in this program.”
This year the Hawks are hosting the women’s basketball SUNYACs at SUNY New Paltz in the Athletics and Wellness Center (AWC) on Friday Feb. 23 at 5:30 p.m. and Saturday Feb. 24 at 4 p.m.