| Summary: | ConcordSa abortions Tri-College area Life on an Indian reservation ALC votes to merge into ELCA See page 3 opinion section see page 11 the ONCORDIAN Volume 79, Number 21 Concordia College Moorhead, Minn. March 27, 1987 Lady Cobbers end spectacular season r ' by Tim Harlow statf writer - "Jessie's had an incredible year, probably her best year ever. If you're going to stop the Lady Cobbers, you're going to have to stop her." —Coach Duane Siverson Concordia College's women's head basket-ball coach Duane Siverson said that it was not that his team did not play well, it is just that Wisconsin-Stevens Point won the game. The eighth ranked Pointers played seven points better than the fifth ranked Lady Cob-bers in last Saturday's NCAA Division III na-tional championship. The Pointers shot near-ly 90 percent from the free throw line, shot 66 percent from the field and held off a Con-cordia rally to capture the national champion-ship, 81-74. Concordia held a two-point lead at halftime, 34-32, but the Pointers outscored the Lady Cobbers 49-40 in the second half, including a 10-2 run midway through the second stan-za after the score was tied 52-52. Late in the game Concordia put together a rally, pulling within two at 68-66 with Stevens Point's ex-cellent free throw shooting down the stretch kept the Pointers in front until the final buzzer. Jessie Beachy, Jillayn Quaschnick and Nan-cy Jacobson scored in double figures for Con-cordia, but could not offset the performance of the Pointers' guards. Freshmen Debby Shane and Donna Pivonka combined for 38 points, and Sonja Sorenson added 12. Siverson said it was disappointing not win-ning the championship, but he is still pleas-ed with the effort.of his team. "They have committed themselves to being the best people they can possibly be," said Siverson about the Lady Cobber players. 'It is a direct carryover to their basketball skills and the excellence they attained in basket-ball. They were only one game short of be-ing the very best. It was gratifying getting to the final four and playing as well as we could play. It was a tremendous effort by the kids." The Lady Cobbers earned a spot in the na-tional final by upsetting Kean College (NJ.) Friday night 74-69. It was the third time Con-cordia had beaten a ranked team in tourna-ment play before falling to Stevens Point. "I could not be prouder of the way our kids represented the school and the coaching staff," said Siverson. "They were superb. After reflecting on the other teams and coaches our kids were definitely the class of the tourna-ment. The crowd continually came up to me arid said that is the best team that they have ever had in their fieldhouse. I guess that is more gratifying than the success they have at-tained this year — to know that they are beautiful people and class individuals. They To say 1986-87 has been a banner year for the Lady Cobber basketball team is an understatement. After graduating three starters from last season's MIAC co-championship team, it looked like a second straight title was out of the question. Inex-perience and youth dominated the Concor-dia stats sheets, but dedication, desire and hard work made up for inexperience and car-ried the Lady Cobbers to the Final Four, a place that Siverson did not expect to be when the Lady Cobbers were 4-3 early in the season. "With the inexperience and the young team we had at the beginning of the year, I just didn't feel that the Final Four would be realistic," said Siverson. "I knew that there was the potential but a lot of good things have to happen. You have to get the breaks and you have to continue to improve game to game. A lot of things have to happen to make playoffs and once you make playoffs the cy-cle starts over. I have never coached and been around a harder working group of kids. They have dedicated and committed themselves to being an excellent basketball team. They paid the price. It's unfortunate that after all the work and things they have gone through that they didn't win the national championship." Most of the team will have an excellent shot at returning to the Final Four again next season as 13 players will return. Guard Karen Hanson will not be returning. The senior from Bismarck, N.D. will graduate in May with many memories of Concordia basketball. Hanson said she will remember the people and the friendships she has made as the most •See page 6, column 5 Look inside: News 2 Editorial. 8 Features. .11 15 S p o r t s . . . . . . 1 7
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