The 2022-23 basketball season was full of broken records and prestigious awards for the Smith Pioneers. The team saw their first appearance in the NCAA Final Four and their highest final national rank of No. 3 for Division III women’s basketball.
Among their team accomplishments, the Pioneers claimed victories in four tournaments: Smith Holiday Classic, Bowdoin Coastal Classic, Tyler Tip-Off and the NEWMAC Conference Championship. They held a 30-2 season record, breaking the previous school record for season wins. In conference games, they went undefeated with a 10-0 record, and never lost a single game on their home court, even during the NCAA Championship rounds.
Along with the team’s overwhelming successes, head coach Lynn Hersey was also regionally and nationally recognized. She was named Women’s Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA) National Coach of the Year, NEWMAC Coaching Staff of the Year and New England Women’s Basketball Association (NEWBA) Coach of the Year. Hersey has been coaching the Pioneers for 16 seasons and has shaped the program into one of the most competitive in Division III. She has led the Pioneers to all three of their Sweet 16 appearances.
Three of Hersey’s players — Morgan Morrison ’23, Jessie Ruffner ’24, and Katelyn Pickunka ’22 — received regional awards.
Most recently, Morrison was named the WBCA NCAA Division III Player of the Year with All-American distinctions. Throughout the season she also won eight other awards including being recognized as a WBCA NCAA Division III Collegiate All-Star, the D3Hoops.com National Player of the Year and First Team All-American as well as the NEWMAC Athlete of the Year. This season, Morrison also crossed the threshold of being a 1,000 Point Scorer, a title only held by 14 other former Pioneers.
Throughout the season, Ruffner was also awarded an impressive number of distinctions including makingthe D3Hoops.com All-Region Second Team, NEWMAC All-Conference First Team, and NEWBA All-Region Third Team. Ruffner had 181 rebounds, 118 assists and 63 turnovers over the course of the season.
Pickunka’s honors include making the NCAA Final Four All-Tournament Team and being named the NEWMAC Tournament Most Outstanding Player, NEWBA All-Star and Tyler Tip-Off Tournament MVP. She had 50 steals, 254 rebounds and scored 292 points over the course of the season.
While their success is clear on paper, the stats and distinctions fail to encompass the chemistry and dedication of the players and coaching staff themselves.
“We all created an unconditional bond,” said Morrison, “It was just so supportive at all times, you could go to anyone on the team for anything and they’d be willing to help you out. That’s really special and it’s hard to find out in the real world.”
The team spent countless hours together — practicing, traveling and studying. Basketball is a large part of their lives, especially when it came to the NCAA championships.
“Practicing for two and a half hours a day is really hard and it wears on you a lot and just having people who are going through the same thing to support you, you really make friendships that do last forever” said Morrison.
As the season went on, the Pioneers grew closer, both emotionally as well as in their playing styles.
“[The team] is there supporting you and I think that really translates into us knowing each other and knowing how each other plays, which makes us play better on the court,” explained Morrison.
This chemistry translated to the coaching staff who also became a part of the Pioneers’ basketball family. The Pioneer coaching team consists of four members; Head Coach
Lynn Hersey, Assistant Coach Kate Kerrigan, Assistant Coach and Recruiting Coordinator Jen MacAulay, and Graduate Assistant Coach Kat Puda.
“They’re just so close. They’re very supportive of each other,” said Hersey, “[they are] all their genuine selves and they support each other in that and ultimately it’s a really great environment and I think that helps us on the court.”
The admiration flows both ways.
“When they give us feedback we really take it into consideration and apply it,” said Morrison, “They do so much work for us that we just want to do the best we can for them.”
Highlighting this dedication to their team, Morrison recalled just one example of the immense effort the coaching staff showed during the NCAA championship:
“We had a late game and we did not finish until 11:30 p.m. and then we had practice the next day at noon and they were up until 2:30 a.m. getting all the information they could on the team we were playing next and then came in at like 7:00 a.m. the next day and prepared even more for us.”
With a staff that was prepared to work hard for their players and players willing to do the same for their coaches and themselves, there was just one more piece in the puzzle of a successful season: Drive.
“Right off the bat, we all came in this season going, ‘we want a final four, we want to go to the national championship, we’re going to do whatever it takes,’” said Morrison.
The team carried this mentality through the season, amassing the best record in the program’s history and progressing the farthest the Pioneers ever have into the NCAA Championship.
Said Morrison, “We came in with that mindset from the beginning and it was always something we wanted to do and we knew that we were going to do.”
