By Ed Morrone

When the final buzzer sounded on the women’s basketball team’s season on Sunday, there was no anger or regret. No what-if’s or what-could have-been’s. Instead, there was a coaching staff and 13 players that were filled with pride over how far this once forgotten program has come.

Led by first-year head coach Krista Kilburn-Steveskey and four seniors that guided the program to 72 wins in their careers, the Pride experienced it all this year. First, there was a November win on the road at No. 17 Michigan State, the program’s first ever victory over a ranked team. Then came the 13 conference victories, which accounted for half of the team’s 26 wins, another program best.

When the Pride fell short in the CAA Tournament semifinals, there was still talk of a possible NCAA Tournament at large berth. When that call never came, Hofstra went off to its second consecutive WNIT, this time getting as far as the quarterfinals before Western Kentucky ended it all in Sunday’s 72-54 decision in Bowling Green, Ky.

Still, Kilburn-Steveskey said there was no need for any heads to be hanging.

“We didn’t even discuss the loss as a disappointment,” said Kilburn-Steveskey, who was rewarded with the inaugural Maggie Dixon Rookie Coach of the Year award earlier this week. “I mean yes, like any coach in the world, I hate to lose, but I wasn’t disappointed because our effort was there. We just reflected about the season and how much the seniors have done for this program.”

Those four seniors are Cigi McCollin, Lizanne Murphy, Lana Harshaw and Vanessa Gidden, none of whom had their best games against Western Kentucky (Harshaw led the group with 13 points and 12 rebounds). But three of the four cracked the 1,000-point plateau for their careers (Harshaw fell 91 points shy with 909), while McCollin leaves with a school best 291 three-pointers. Other accomplishments included Gidden as the all-time blocks leader and Murphy falling 12 rebounds shy of becoming the second player in program history to tally 1,000 points and 1,000 rebounds for her career.

One of the Pride’s biggest problems on Sunday was that the team ran into an unsurpassable road block in the form of Crystal Kelly. The Lady Toppers’ junior forward torched Hofstra’s helpless defense for 28 points and 12 rebounds, surpassing the 2,000-point mark in the process, a remarkable feat for a third-year player.

“She’s the real deal,” Kilburn-Steveskey said. “She had a severe presence on the floor. She will have a chance to play in the WNBA for sure.”

Another hurdle the Pride couldn’t seem to leapfrog was its unpredictable travel schedule. Unlike the NCAA Tournament, which has regional sites, all of the WNIT contests are played at the campus sites of the higher-seeded teams. This meant that Hofstra went from Hempstead to Columbia, S.C. to Bowling Green in the span of eight days. It also meant that if the Pride wanted to win the WNIT championship, it would have to win four of its five games on the road.

“One of the big advantages that Western Kentucky had was that they had a pretty big stint between the end of their conference tournament and the second round of the WNIT,” said Kilburn-Steveskey, who admitted her team looked “tired” against the Lady Toppers. “And then they got to play three at home. It was such a battle for us, especially after a really physical game at South Carolina.”

Still, the Pride’s accomplishments were not diluted in the 18-point loss to Western Kentucky. After all, this is the farthest the team has ever gone and paired with the three CAA teams that qualified for the NCAA Tournament (James Madison, Delaware and Old Dominion), women’s CAA basketball has effectively been placed back on the map.

And so while the Pride’s four seniors head off to parts unknown, Kilburn-Steveskey will prepare for next season, one that will certainly come with plenty of new challenges and, perhaps for the first time ever, heavy expectations.

But that’s OK. After all, after 26 wins and experiencing it all together, how could it not?

Despite the loss to Western Kentucky, Lizanne Murphy and the Pride know that this season was one for the record books.