WINCHESTER, Va. - Shenandoah University gave women's basketball coach Michelle Guyant-Holloway an early Christmas present Saturday afternoon with a 61-59 non-league victory over Eastern Mennonite University.

The win gives Guyant-Holloway's club a school best-ever 7-1 start to the 2006-07 season. This surpasses the 6-1 start of the 1991-92 team, which finished the year with a 14-9 record.

However, at the start it looked like Eastern Mennonite (4-3) was going to blow the Hornets out of their own gym. The Lady Royals scored the first 12 points of the contest as SU turned the ball over on its first seven possessions and wasn't able to even get a shot off until the 16:56 mark.

That first shot, a Dee Fisher three-pointer, began the long road back for the Hornets. Fisher's shot ignited a 7-0 run that made it 12-7 with 13:56 to play, and after EMU pushed its advantage back into double digits, Shenandoah answered with another run.

This spurt, from the 11:36 to 8:11 marks, made it 20-19 in favor of the hosts. The two teams then remained within three points of one another until the Lady Royals finish the first half on an 11-4 run.

Eastern Mennonite maintained this lead until Alexis Hargbol tied it for SU at 48-48 on a jumper in the paint with 9:12 to play. Senior Cassie Womack made it 50-48 26 seconds later, and the Hornets led the all but 11 seconds the rest of the way.

Womack gave her club the lead for good with 7:44 remaining, and all that remained for her was to see if she would own the school's all-time rebounding record by game's end. Needing 20 boards to pass Laura Johnson '84 for the mark, Womack finished with 17. Barring injury, Womack will have at least 17 more games to get the three rebounds she needs.

EMU did make it interesting by cutting it to two points on a Carolyn Riley layup in the waning moments, but they could only get off a three-quarter length shot following a missed SU free throw.

Senior Alicia Sanders led the victors with 12 points despite playing with the flu and Womack added 11. Riley had a game-high 14 for the Lady Royals.

Box Score 

Shenandoah is off until January 6 when they take on Albright in the first round of the Villa Julie College Tournament. Juniata rounds out that four-team tourney.