Broken records, All-Missouri Valley Conference honors, Missouri Valley Conference Defensive Player of the Year, MVC Scholar athletes. Such are the accolades that characterize the four graduating seniors of the women’s basketball team: Chevelle Herring, Kelsey Crites, Megan Neuvirth and Katie Frank.
Their final home game is on Saturday, March 6 at 2:05 p.m. versus Indiana State at the D.J. Sokol Arena.
“I’ll miss how much fun they had and how appreciative they were of the opportunity to play basketball for Creighton,” head coach Jim Flanery said. “They brought joy to practices, road trips and games, which is something that is harder to do today than ever.”
The players have their own memories of the past four years.
“It’s not necessarily one thing, but just being a part of this team is something that I’m going to be proud of for the rest of my life,” forward Frank said. “The people who are a part of our program are truly amazing, and I can honestly say that my teammates are my best friends. Not many people get to spend four years as a Division I athlete, and we are even luckier to spend it with our friends.”
“I have developed a much tougher mentality than I had coming into this experience,” Frank said. “Over the past four years I’ve definitely been broken down mentally and physically at times, but now I’m stronger for it. I know that I’m going to be successful later in life because of the life skills I’ve learned as an athlete.”
They all stressed that a major goal they had was to make the NCAA Tournament, something they have failed to accomplish during their time at Creighton.
“We’ve come so close the past three seasons, and for us seniors this is our last shot,” Frank said. “I also feel like we haven’t completely met our potential, at least not consistently.”
Despite this, these seniors have accomplished many goals during their Creighton careers both on and off the court. They have formed strong friendships, grown as people and taught others.
Yet, even with all this success, several goals still remain. As this group of seniors’ careers come to a close, they look to add a NCAA tournament birth to their already impressive list of accomplishments, however they may have to win the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament to earn the programs first birth into the big dance since 2002.