ROANOKE, Va. – The Washington and Lee women's basketball team rolled to an 86-43 road win at Hollins on Wednesday evening to secure the top seed for the upcoming ODAC Tournament.
The Generals improve to 18-6 overall and 15-2 in conference play with the win, and it marks the first time in program history having back-to-back seasons with 15 or more wins in the ODAC (16-2 in 2021-22). The 2022-23 campaign also marks the fourth straight full season in which the team has reached the 18-win mark.
W&L logged three big runs during the game to post the 43-point win. The first was a mark of 19-3 spanning an even 5:00 from the middle of the first quarter until early in the second. First-year
Sofia Feigelson (Millbrook, N.Y. / Millbrook School) scored 10 points during the run to lead the Blue and White, as the Generals commanded a 23-10 lead to that point.
The next run of 19-2 started with a pair of
Hanna Malik (Raleigh, N.C. / Athens Drive) free throws with nine seconds left in the second quarter until 2:53 remained in the third quarter (7:16 game time). Malik's foul shots gave W&L a 41-25 halftime lead, with the team pulling ahead by a 58-27 score by the end of the run. The third sizeable W&L run in the game occurred in the fourth quarter, when W&L outscored Hollins, 19-3, in a 4:16 span to lead 80-36 with 4:37 left in the game.
When added together, the Generals outscored Hollins, 57-8, across a total of just 16:32 of game time during the three runs.
Scoring was balanced for the Blue and White, with Feigelson and first-year
Elka Prechel (Corvallis, Ore. / Corvallis) leading the way with 13 points each. Feigelson shot 4-for-7, including 3-for-5 from deep, and added three rebounds, three assists and three steals. Prechel sank three triples to boost her season total to 72, tying Taylor Casey '20 (2016-17, 2019-20) for the third-highest single-season total. Prechel now needs four more to pass Meg Ingram '12 (2008-09) and Malik (2021-22) for the program record.
Senior
Kathryn Vandiver (Charlotte, N.C. / Charlotte Latin School) totaled 11 points and seven rebounds, with six of her seven boards coming off the offensive glass. First-year
Mary Schleusner (Charlotte, N.C. / Charlotte Latin School) tallied 10 points, seven rebounds, three blocks and three steals. Her season block total now stands at 69, which moves her past Felice Herman '11 and
Erin Hughes '21 for the ninth-highest career total in program history (69).
Junior
Olivia Berntson (Memphis, Tenn. / St. Agnes Academy) chipped in with nine points and five rebounds on 4-of-6 shooting in just 11 minutes on the floor. Junior
Grace O'Connor (Hillsborough, N.J. / Hillsborough) and sophomore
Cat Pettegrove (Califon, N.J. / Voorhees) tied for the game high with eight rebounds each. In total, 15 different Generals scored in the game, with no player logging fewer than seven minutes nor more than 19.
Hollins was paced by Cabria Mutz, who scored a team-high 12 points, grabbed a team-high eight boards and finished with two blocks and three steals. Noelani Carter added six points, seven rebounds and six assists, and Ariana Gutierrez notched six points and five rebounds.
W&L limited Hollins to just 29.3 percent (17-58) field-goal shooting, 20 percent (5-25) from long range and 25 percent (4-16) at the free throw line, while pulling down 66 rebounds. That total is good for the fourth highest in a game in program history, and it is the fifth game this season with 64 or more. The Generals also added 10 more blocks to its program-record total for the season (now 194).
Entering the day, W&L led Division III in blocks per game (8.0), ranked third in total rebounds per game (50.4) and fourth in rebounding margin per game (13.9).
The Generals close out the regular season in their next game, a 2:00 pm home contest against Shenandoah on Saturday.
