Luke Montalbano, Sports Writer SALEM, Va.– The Emory & Henry women’s basketball team entered the Old Dominion Athletic Conference (ODAC) Tournament as the number one overall seed in the tournament. They finished the regular season with a 21-4 record, and 15-3 mark in ODAC play. The Wasps knocked off eighth seeded University of Lynchburg in the quarterfinals, but fell short to Randolph-Macon College in the semifinals. In the Lynchburg game, both teams traded leads. Lynchburg got out to their largest lead with seven with 9:34 left in the fourth quarter, according to GoWasps. The Wasps would retake the lead with 1:49 to go off a three-pointer by Kylea Cooper. The Wasps held on to win the game by four. The Wasps were led by their three seniors, Kara Stafford (Kingsport, Tenn.), Sydney McKinney (Big Stone Gap, Va.) and Peyton Williams (Saltville, Va.). Stafford and McKinney had 14 points while Williams recorded 13. Williams nearly had a triple-double with 13 points, 11 rebounds and nine assists. The next game saw the Wasps matched-up with the Yellow Jackets of Randolph-Macon. Randolph-Macon had not lost a game since Feb. 1, when the Wasps beat them on Joy Scruggs Day. The Wasps found themselves down by as many as 21 points in the third quarter. However, the Wasps cut the lead to two with eight seconds left. The Jackets then hit two free throws to win the game by four. McKinney scored 30 points and recorded 12 rebounds in her final game as a Wasp. On the Macon side, Michal Ross led the way with 27 points, while ODAC Player of the Year, Kelly Williams, recorded 24 points and 14 rebounds. For the second consecutive year, the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) denied the Wasps an at-large bid into the NCAA Tournament. According to GoWasps, though the Wasps combined for a 44-9 record the past two seasons and are 3-0 against top-25 teams the past two seasons, they have not received a bid into the tournament. This year’s senior class will go down as one of the winningest classes in school history. The past four years, the Wasps went 86-24, recorded three wins against the national top-25 and was ranked as high as 15th in the country. They not only made it to the program’s first NCAA tournament in school history in 2018, but also won their first game in the NCAA tournament, according to GoWasps. Individually, this senior class has accumulated numerous accolades. Williams and McKinney have been named to the all-ODAC three times, while Stafford was named to it this year. Combined, these three seniors have been named ODAC Player of the week six times, according to GoWasps.
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