To get the full picture of what this season could mean for both the 20th-ranked Smith College and No. 11 Amherst College women’s basketball teams, we have to take a step back to 2019-20 season.
Both the Pioneers and Mammoths had made it to the Sweet 16 round of the NCAA Division III tournament in March 2020. Each was on location — Smith running its morning practice at Tufts University and Amherst setting up at St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minn. — when their seasons came to a sudden, abrupt halt.
“We were on court and my athletic director came with us to the shoot around… and she relayed the message to me on the side during a drill,” Smith College coach Lynn Hersey said. “I think I kept practice going for another 10 minute, just to sort of process and just think about how to frame and deliver this news.”
“When you had to walk in and you heard the news and you walk into the locker room and tell the team that we’re not playing anymore, it was just heartbreaking,” Amherst head coach G.P. Gromacki said.
Neither team was able to practice together last season as a full squad, but they haven’t shown any signs of rust to start this season. Both teams are currently sitting with identical 19-2 overall records; Smith is currently perfect in NEWMAC action, while Amherst is 7-2 in NESCAC play. Amherst has qualified for 12 consecutive Sweet 16 berths, and while Smith still considers its program to be a bit of an underdog, the Pioneers have made the postseason nine times in their last 10 years. Based on their play so far, both teams are geared up for another long postseason run.
The Pioneers’ postseason run in 2019-20 was a bit of a surprise to the team. Though they knew there was an influx of talented first-years coming in, the team had lost seven seniors, and Hersey wasn’t quite sure what to expect that year. They surprised everybody, including themselves, with a 26-4 record
This year, they’ve only gotten better — six of their players from the 2019-20 squad deferred an academic year and are back on this season’s team, and the mix of returners and newcomers has gelled quickly together on the court.
“We have a lot of really talented, skilled, high IQ players, and they have bought into the balance,” Hersey said. “On another team, they would be 20-point scorers, but in our program they’re willing to celebrate one another (whenever) it’s their time to be the main scorer, but it’s not at the expense of the team.”
The team has been spreading the wealth when it comes to performing this season. Hampshire Regional alumna Katelyn Pickunka leads the team with 11.3 points per game, followed closely by teammates Jesse Ruffner (10.5) and Morgan Morrison (9.7). Pickunka also has the most boards for the Pioneers, averaging 7.6 a game, with Elle Jo Whalen right behind her with 5.7, and Danielle Gleissner has dished out a team-leading 96 assists and 64 steals this year.
The team-first mentality has paid off for the Pioneers, who have won all but two of their games this season and went on an 11-game winning streak over a two-month span from November to January. But despite their 19-2 record, the team still feels as though they’re underestimated wherever they go.
“That’s kind of one of our mottos this year — no matter what it is, whatever you accomplish, we’re still always seen us underdogs. (But) the coaching staff and my other teammates agree that I think it suits us best,” Pickunka said. “(When we’re) the underdog, that’s when we play our best. There’s no pressure.”
The Mammoths are still looking to find their identity as a team this season. Though they haven’t established a clear-cut picture of who they are on the court just yet, they’ve proven who they are as a team in the win column. They’re riding a wave of momentum as the NESCAC tournament approaches, and they’re currently on a nine-game winning streak. Gromacki thinks that his team turned a corner once they’d bounced back from mix of Covid issues, injuries, and canceled games, among other obstacles.
“We didn’t play until January 7 or 8, so we went a whole month without (playing), we couldn’t practice during finals, and we didn’t play a game for over a month,” Gromacki said. “Once we got through that, and then started playing – it took us a little time to kind of hit a groove and now that we’re playing, they’ve really improved a lot after that big layoff.”
The Mammoths are another team that scores by committee, relying on different individuals to step up on different nights. Three players — Dani Valdez (11.5), Gabrielle Zaffiro (11), and AnLing Vera (10.2) — are averaging more than 10 points a game, and Vera has collected 99 assists on the season. Valdez leads the team with 7.1 boards per game, and Courtney Resch sits second with an average of 6.3 board per game.
They’re a younger team this year, but Gromacki has relied on his five seniors to set the tone for the season, and the rest of the team has followed their lead.
The goal for the Mammoths is always the same — win a title. For now, they’re just trying to get through each game as they come.
“Our goal is always to win a national championship. So if we keep doing what we need to do, we’ll have a chance,” Gromacki said. “That’s in the back of our minds. It’s just to get through this regular season and then try to start playing our best basketball toward the end of February and March. That’s pretty much our main goal.”
So far, the Mammoths seem right on target when it comes to peaking at the right time.
Amherst and Smith will play the first round of their respective conference tournaments this weekend. Amherst will host either Bowdoin or Colby this Sunday at 2 p.m. in the NESCAC quarterfinals, and Smith College will play their first quarterfinal game in the NEWMAC tourney on Wednesday, February 23.