Hoops Hosts Tournament Contests

WINCHESTER, Va. - For the next two weeks, the Shenandoah University Department of Intercollegiate Athletics will be looking back at its top 10 highlights of the 2008-09 school year.

For the complete list and overview of the project, please click here.

Today, we look at our No. 8 highlight: Men's and Women's Basketball Hosting USA South Conference First Round games together for the first-time ever.

Since joining the USA South (nee Dixie) in 1993-94, the men's and women's basketball tournaments have had a number of different formats. For three years of that time, the tournaments were combined with all teams heading to one site for the entire duration of the tournament. In 1994 and 1995 and again since 2006, the tournament quarterfinals have been played at the site of the higher seed with only the four semi-finalists heading to the championship venue.

This means that the men's and women's basketball teams have had five opportunities to host a quarterfinal round game in Shingleton Gymnasium.

Coming into the 2008-09 season, the women had hosted twice: 1995 and 2007, while the men hosted just once, in 2008. Since neither team had hosted in the same year, fans and administrators were always faced with making a choice of which team to follow in the semi-final round. The support was always split.

Until this year.

With the men needing two wins in the final home weekend and the women won, both coach Robert Trent Harris, Jr.' men and Michelle Guyant-Holloway's women went out and did just that to secure a pair of first-round home games for the first time in school history.

Both teams entered the tournament as fourth seeds with the women taking on No. 5 Averett followed by the men's contest against fifth-seeded N.C. Wesleyan.

Each was victorious - the women topped Averett 76-64 and the men outlasted the Battling Bishops 83-77.

The two tournament games were two of four that the university hosted during the year. Women's Soccer lost 1-0 to Greensboro in its quarterfinal while the women's lacrosse team downed Ferrum 18-5.

Both hoops games were sellouts in spite of the fact that by conference rule, students/faculty and staff had to pay to get into the contests.