March 11, 2015 By Josh Sinclair

After back-to-back national championships, the No. 1 ranked women’s wheelchair basketball team came up short in its quest for a third straight championship.

The Whitewater women’s wheelchair team took third place in the NCAA tournament this weekend in Columbia, Missouri ,with a loss to the University of Alabama 63-40 and a win over the University of Texas-Arlington 57-56.

Senior starter Vanessa Erskine talked about the season as a whole after the tournament.

“This season went really well,” Erskine said. “We had to overcome a lot of obstacles, but we stuck together and grew as a family, which has made this season so awesome. Everyone on the team really pushed and supported each other, which resulted in an awesome team atmosphere.”

The team was outscored 35 to 16 in the first half but made a strong recovery and fought back against Alabama in the second half, only being outscored by four points.

Junior Mariska Beijer poured in a game-high 30 points on 15 of 23 shooting. She also led both teams in rebounds with 14. Beijer was the only ’Hawk in double digits, who only had three players that scored in the contest.

The ’Hawks then played the University of Texas-Arlington and were able to edge the Mavericks 57 to 56 to take home third place.

Beijer led the Warhawks in scoring again with 24 points. She was also able to grab 18 rebounds in the contest, giving her 32 rebounds in just two games this weekend. Senior Jill Host scored 20 points and also dished out six assists in her final game as a Warhawk.

The ’Hawks come into next season having only four players returning, but having a slim amount of players is no surprise for the lady Warhawks.

“We started the season with eight players which was rough and due to medical problems in the middle of the season dropped to only seven players,” Erskine said. “This was really tough in practices since we didn’t have numbers to work five on five game like situations very often. But we really pushed ourselves and didn’t let it slow us down.”

After the tournament, Erskine reflected on the season and what the future looks like for women’s wheelchair basketball.

“Our future looks bright. We have quite a few athletes graduating this year, but we have a lot of young talent currently on the team along with a lot of young talent coming into the program next year, all with great attitudes and willing to learn and absorb everything,” Erskine said.

Coach Dan  Price said he felt the season went well for his young team despite lack of game experience.

“I’m extremely proud of how hard this team worked this year,” Price said. “Yes, we had our ups and downs but we came to work every single day and made a true effort to get better day in and day out … This year we lacked a lot of game experience but we overcame that.”

After finishing the season 7-16 this year, Price said the Warhawks already have three new recruits coming in to bolster the team’s depth.