WINCHESTER, Va. – The Shenandoah University women's basketball team begins its defense of its 2022 ODAC championship Monday evening with a 7 p.m. tournament first round home contest versus Eastern Mennonite.
 
Shenandoah, 16-9 and the tournament's No. 7 seed, hosts the tenth-seeded Royals (4-14) for the right to face No. 2 Randolph-Macon in Thursday's 6 p.m. quarterfinal round contest at the Salem Civic Center.
 
HISTORY
The Hornets, who captured their second ODAC title last season by defeating R-MC, 56-43, in the championship contest, have bested EMU twice this year. Coach Melissa Smeltzer-Kraft, who earned her 100^th career victory earlier this season, guided her club to a 75-53 home win over the Royals on Nov. 30 and a 72-55 victory in Harrisonburg four days ago.
 
Shenandoah has won 18 of 27 meetings with Eastern Mennonite dating back to Dec. 8, 2000, and is currently riding a five-game winning streak. Monday's tournament matchup is the third-ever between the two programs with EMU winning, 53-52, in the 2014 quarterfinals in Salem and Shenandoah taking a 76-68 victory in Harrisonburg to open the 2018 tourney.
 
SCOUTING SHENANDOAH
The Hornets come into the tournament as the No. 4 scoring team in the ODAC at 65.1 points per game and No. 3 defensively at 51.6 ppg.
 
Sophomore Terese Greene, the ODAC Player of the Week on Dec. 12, is fourth in the league in scoring at 15.8 per contest and she has scored in double-figures this season in all but two games.
 
Junior Madisen Kimble, who also earned ODAC Player of the Week accolades this year, is second to Greene in scoring at 11.7 per contest and her 3.6 assists per game is third in the league.
 
Sophomore Shawnise Campbell is fourth in the league in rebounding, 8.1 per game, and her .567 shooting percentage is second-best in the conference.
 
SCOUTING EASTERN MENNONITE
Eastern Mennonite, in its fifth season under the direction of Jenny Posey, is ninth in scoring in the league at 55.9 points per outing and 12^th defensively at 67.2 ppg.
 
Sophomore Mya Hamlet leads the Royals in scoring with a 16.1 per game average and she is the only EMU player averaging in double figures this season. Hamlet is also second, to Brii Redfearn, in rebounding at 6.7 boards per contest. Redfearn pulls down an even 7.0 rebounds per game.
 
THE COACHES
Smeltzer-Kraft is 107-119 in nine seasons as the Hornets head coach and owns ODAC titles in 2019 and 2022.
 
Posey has 41-140 record in eight seasons as a college head coach with 29-75 record in her five years at EMU.
 
In 11 career meetings between (five during Posey's tenure at Hollins, six after she moved to EMU), Smeltzer-Kraft has come out on top in 10 of those contests.
 
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