HARRISONBURG, Va. – Ninth-seeded Shenandoah University will be making its fourth trip to the Salem Civic Center for the ODAC Women's Basketball Tournament quarterfinals thanks to a 76-68 victory over No. 8 Eastern Mennonite Monday night.
Shenandoah (12-14) advances to face top-seeded Emory and Henry Friday afternoon at 1 – this will be the second straight year that the Hornets meet the Wasps in Salem.
With the score tied at 52-52 heading into the fourth quarter, Shenandoah earned its second straight win over EMU on the Royals (13-12) home floor by scoring 24 points in the final stanza.
A pair of 3-pointers, by Jordan Sondrol and Ashley Stone at 7:36 and 6:55, respectively, gave the Hornets the lead for good.
The two buckets, which put SU up 60-56, started 13-3 run that put coach Melissa Smeltzer-Kraft's club up 67-59 with 2:35 remaining.
Shenandoah then made nine of 12 free throws down the stretch to clinch the victory.
Sondrol, the league's third leading scorer who was held scoreless in the first half, finished with 12 points, nine rebounds and a career-high four blocked shots.
Senior Kirstyn Arcata more than picked up the slack from Sondrol, pouring in 28 points on 9-of-14 shooting from the field and 7-of-9 from the line.
"I am so proud of this team," Smeltzer-Kraft said.
"Kirstyn is a senior that stepped up and seized the moment. She really grabbed the bull by the horns tonight.
"I think we tried to emulate what we did down here on the 6th (a 61-36 SU win on February 6) and that worked for us.
"The whole team played so well tonight. We were missing a starter (McKenzie Mathis) and we had the next-man-up mentality.
"It feels good to be going back to Salem. This is the second year in a row that we have taken a spot from a team that is a regular down there. This is becoming the expectation for our squad."
The Hornets never trailed in the first half as the squad shot an even 50 percent (15-of-30) from the field and committed just four turnovers to offset the Royals 19-14 edge on the glass.
In addition to Arcata' 28 and 12 from Sondrol, Ashley Stone and Shannon Kuhn both had 13.
The SU starters scored 74 of the team's 76 points.
Shenandoah shot 47 percent (24-of-51) for the game to 37 percent (25-of-67) for the Royals.
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