STANDISH, ME – The Saint Joseph’s Women’s Basketball team posted a 12-12 overall record and played to a 7-5 tilt in Great Northeast Athletic Conference play during the 2009-10 campaign. The Monks’ in-league record matched that of three other GNAC teams, but the Royal Blue missed the conference tourney due to tiebreaker rules.

Team members and followers had high hopes heading into preseason, with a solid core of veterans returning, several talented newcomers on board and the most successful coach in program history, Mike McDevitt ’83, back in the fold.

A strengthened schedule, including five 2010 NCAA DIII Tournament qualifiers and two ECAC Tournament participants, awaited the Monks with the idea that the team would be better prepared heading into the conference tourney by facing stiff competition.

Unfortunately, the Monks seemed to face adversity at every turn. Key players missed time, and several saw their campaign cut short, due to injuries. It wasn’t uncommon for St. Joe’s to have only three or four healthy players on the bench down the stretch. Kayla Boston ’11 (North Berwick, ME), All-GNAC forward Meghan Daigle ’10 (Grantham, NH), Allie Parent’ 12 (Camden, ME), Allison Miner ’10 (Pembroke, NH) and several key bench players all missed time due to injury during the 2009-10 season. In the end, only four players participated in all 24 games.

One of the season’s highlights came on January 3^rd when Carolyn Freeman ’10 (Scarborough, ME/McAuley) scored the 1,000^th point of her career in a loss to Skidmore College. In doing so, the senior guard became the 19^th player in program history to reach the milestone and joined her mom, Linda (Johnson) Freeman ’81, on the 1,000-point banner.

The Royal Blue got off to a solid start and held a 5-3 record after capturing the team’s second consecutive Merry Monk Tournament Championship when the Monks defeated Green Mountain College, 78-50, on December 5^th. Freeman earned Tournament Most Valuable Player honors after averaging 16 points and 8.5 caroms in two tourney wins.

After losing to Husson to cap the fall semester and splitting a pair of contests in the Bowdoin Classic Tournament, defeating Salve Regina and falling to Skidmore, Saint Joseph’s headed to Boston for the Monks’ conference opener against Emmanuel College on January 7^th. St. Joe’s defeated the 13-time GNAC Champions, who were ranked 23^rd in the country at the time, 60-47, behind a game-high 19 points, and five treys, from Megan McDevitt ’12 (Cumberland, ME). For the Monks, the win over the Saints was the second in program history and the first since joining the GNAC in 2007.

Saint Joseph’s owned a 7-5 overall record after posting the upset victory over Emmanuel, who eventually went on to win the team’s fourth consecutive conference crown, but went on to drop five straight, including three conference setbacks. To make matters worse, four of the five losses were by eight points or less and two were by just one point.

The Royal Blue got things back on track with three consecutive conference wins over St. Joseph (CT), Albertus Magnus and Pine Manor, improving to 10-10 overall and 4-3 in league play. After a tough 59-57 loss to Norwich, the conference leader at the time, on February 6^th, St. Joe’s notched victories over GNAC foes Suffolk and Lasell to keep the team’s playoff hopes alive.

St. Joe’s traveled to Boston on February 18^th for a conference contest against Emerson College. Despite holding the lead for the majority of the first half, the Monks lost to the Lions, 70-61. As it turned out, the game would be the Monks’ last of the 2009-10 season. Saint Joseph’s was scheduled to host Mount Ida College on February 20^th, but the Mustangs’ season was cancelled due to undisclosed disciplinary reasons earlier in the month. As a result, St. Joe’s was credited with a conference forfeit victory.

Since St. Joe’s, Suffolk, JWU and Rivier all completed the season with a 7-5 record in GNAC play, tiebreaker rules would decide which three programs would make it into conference tourney, which consists of the top eight teams. In a scenario such as this, where more than two teams are tied, the first tiebreaker is record against the other teams with the same record. Suffolk and JWU both had a 2-1 record against the other three 7-5 teams, while St. Joe's and Rivier were both 1-2. The second tie-breaker is head to head, and Rivier defeated Saint Joseph's earlier in the season, meaning the Raiders were in and the Monks were left out.

The program’s three seniors - Miner, Daigle and Freeman – were honored with a ceremony during the men’s game versus Mount Ida on February 20^th. St. Joe’s posted a 51-50 (.505) record in the last four seasons and the trio combined to net 42% of the team’s offensive output during the last three campaigns.

Several individuals enjoyed stellar seasons:

• Miner, four-year player and two-time captain for the Monks, tallied 514 points and 420 rebounds in 96 career games with a 76% success rate from the free-throw line, which ranks 10th in program history. Miner has also garnered GNAC All-Sportsmanship Team honors following each of the last two seasons. She averaged 4.4 points and 3.2 boards during her senior season.
• Daigle, a three-year starter, two-year captain and two-time All-GNAC selection, scored 817 points and grabbed 426 caroms while donning the Royal Blue. She is 9th in career free-throw percentage with a 77% rate, ranks 27th in career points, and her 11.5 points per game average is 12th in team history. Daigle netted 12.9 points and 7.6 caroms, both team-highs, during the 2009-10 campaign and received GNAC and MWBCA Honor Roll mention on February 8^th.
• Freeman, a four-year starter and two-time All-GNAC recipient, tallied 1,111 points (16th), 593 rebounds (11th), 248 assists (10th), 173 three-pointers (3rd), 518 three-point attempts (3rd) and a 33.4% (7th) shooting percentage from downtown in her career at St. Joe's. The 2010 tri-captain registered 14 double-doubles and missed just one game in four years as a Monk. Freeman averaged 10.0 points and 4.9 rebounds per game as a senior and was listed on the MWBCA Honor Roll on January 7^th.
• Megan McDevitt enjoyed a breakout season, averaging 10.0 points per game while leading the Monks’ long-distance attack with 43 threes and a 39.4% (43-109) rate from downtown. Her 86.1% (31-36) effort from the charity stripe, which ranks fifth in program history, also led the team. The sophomore guard earned two MWBCA Honor Roll selections and a GNAC Honor Roll mention during the season.
• Parent was posting solid numbers before her season ended with an injury on January 28^th. In 18 games, the second-year forward tallied 8.2 points, 6.7 boards, 3.5 assists and 2.2 steals per game and led the team in playing time with 30.9 minutes per contest.
• Ashley Geel ’12 (St. George, ME) played in all 24 games, with 17 starts, and averaged 9.9 points, 7.2 caroms and a team-high 2.3 blocks per game as a sophomore. Her blocks average is the best for a single season and her total of 56 blocks ranks as the second-highest mark in program history. Her career average of 2.0 blocks per game currently ranks as the highest average as well.
• Point guard Casey Drake ’11 (Lebanon, NH) paced the Monks with 3.5 assists per game and averaged 5.3 points and 2.4 boards in 24 starts as a junior.
• Danyelle Shufelt ’13 (Sutton, VT) logged valuable minutes as a freshman and netted 5.3 points, 1.8 boards and 1.3 assists per contest during the 2009-10 campaign.

Although losing key players to graduation, Saint Joseph’s will depend on a solid group of healthy returners and a fresh crop of talented recruits as the team looks to make a run in the GNAC playoffs next winter.

Back L-R: Head Coach Mike McDevitt, Asst. Coach Nik Ray, Allie Parent, Allison Miner, Ashley Geel, Meghan Daigle, Megan McDevitt, Kayla Boston, Asst. Coach Michele Higgins Front L-R: Manager Kimberly Palumbo, Jess Bridges, Amy Jordan, Danyelle Shufelt, Casey Drake, Melanie Cloutier, Carolyn Freeman, Amelia Lamb