SALEM, Va. – Seventh-seeded Shenandoah University continues its quest to defend its 2022 ODAC Women's Basketball Championship with a 3 p.m. tournament semi-final round contest Saturday versus No. 3 Bridgewater.
 
The matchup will be the third this season between the Hornets (18-9) and Eagles (20-5).
 
Bridgewater was a 52-44 winner in Bridgewater on Jan. 4, and exactly one month later, completed the regular season sweep with a 60-53 victory at the James R. Wilkins, Jr. Athletics & Events Center.
 
BC rallied for the win in each of those matchups as Shenandoah had led by six points heading into the fourth quarter of both contests.
 
HISTORY
SU and the Eagles have met 19 times previously with Bridgewater winning 13 of those contests. Two of those games – on Feb. 24, 2015 and Feb. 19, 2019, have come in ODAC Tournament play. Both were first round matchups, with BC winning, 72-53, in Bridgewater in 2015 and Shenandoah, 79-60, in Winchester in 2019.
 
That 2019 victory for SU was the opener on its run to its first-ever ODAC title.
 
SCOUTING SHENANDOAH
The Hornets big three – All-ODAC honorees Terese Greene, Madisen Kimble, and Shawnise Campbell – led SU to its quarterfinal round victory over second-seeded Randolph-Macon with a combined 42 points and 27 rebounds while also adding nine assists and seven blocked shots.
 
Campbell, who entered the game as a 54 percent free thrower shooter, posted her seventh double-double of the season with 16 points and 12 rebounds and was a perfect 6 for 6 from the free throw line. She was 4 of 4 down the stretch to help ice the contest.
 
SCOUTING BRIDGEWATER
The Eagles, who average 63.1 points per game, do not have player currently averaging in double-figures in scoring but three women: Jaden Alsberry, Riley Corcoran, and Erika Nettles, all average between 9.2 and 9.9 points per game.
 
Nettles and Alsberry are tops on the boards at 7.0 and 6.6 per game, respectively.
 
THE COACHES
The coaches in this matchup, Melissa Smeltzer-Kraft for Shenandoah and Stephanie Flamini for Bridgewater, are the only two active coaches in the league that have won an ODAC title. Smeltzer-Kraft has won championships at Shenandoah in 2019 and 2022 while Flamini piloted Guilford to four championships during her 17-year tenure in Greensboro.
 
In ODAC Tournament play, Smeltzer-Kraft owns the win in the only matchup, the 2019 quarterfinals, between the two women.
 
WHAT'S AT STAKE
A berth in Sunday's ODAC Championship contest. Shenandoah is seeking its third title in the past five years and Bridgewater its fourth overall but first since 2008.
 
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