Mar 31, 2015 5 min read

CALIFORNIA – There will be only six basketball teams – three men’s and three women’s – that can call themselves NCAA champions this year.

The California University women’s team is one of those six.

So how did that happen? Who saw that coming?

The Vulcans’ players will tell you they did. They sat in a circle in their locker room in the fall and talked openly about winning a national championship, before they had even started playing games. Senior forward Emma Mahady told the O-R back in November that “the sky is the limit for this team” and it wasn’t just early season hype. She believed what she was saying.

But somewhere along the way, the Vulcans’ championship push got sidetracked. They were dealt a crushing blow when senior forward Shanice Clark, who was being redshirted after suffering a hip injury in preseason practice, died in her sleep Jan. 18 because of a blood cell disorder.

When the Vulcans returned to the court five days later, they lost by eight points at Gannon. Basketball didn’t seem so important.

So how did the Vulcans get back on the national championship trail? What was the key to turning around a season that had turned into something tragic?

Maybe the Vulcans had simply been through too much, shed too many tears and experienced too many days of heartache to let what life threw their way bother them.

Perhaps, as their coach said, they were just goofy enough to not feel the pressure that comes with a national tournament.

“Basketball was a way for the players to get their minds off everything back in January,” head coach Jess Strom said.

“They used practices, games and watching film as an escape. Instead of being sad, basketball is what they wanted to do. What they didn’t realize was, by doing that, they were getting better every day.”

The Vulcans sent a message that they were back when they dismantled fifth-ranked Indiana, 76-45, on the Crimson Hawks’ home court Feb. 4.

“We wanted to beat IUP, not because they were ranked fifth, but because they’re our rival,” Strom said. “After that game, the kids believed that we can do this.”

There was another loss to Gannon, this one at home and in overtime, that cost the Vulcans the PSAC’s West Division title and put them in a difficult spot in the bracket for the conference tournament. But Cal ran the gauntlet, defeating Gannon, East Division champion Bloomsburg and West Chester to win the conference title. Strom said finally beating Gannon was the final confidence-boost the Vulcans needed.

Winning the PSAC title, combined with 26-2 Limestone (N.C.) having to forfeit wins because of the use of an ineligible player, catapulted Cal from No. 4 to the top spot in the regional rankings in one week. The Vulcans hosted the Atlantic Regional and won three games, including hard-fought victories over West Liberty and Bloomsburg to advance to the Elite 8 in Sioux Falls, S.D.

By this point, the Vulcans were too battled-tested and too confident to let anything, including flight problems, sidetrack them. When they arrived March 21 at the airport to fly from Pittsburgh to a connecting flight in Dallas, the Vulcans were told their flight had been cancelled. They had no flight. Some teams would have kicked it into panic mode, but not Cal.

“It didn’t bother us,” said Cal assistant coach Katie Tetzlaw said. “Jess is so calm that we just laughed it off.”

The Vulcans spent the night in Pittsburgh and the NCAA put them on a charter flight to Sioux Falls the next day. Once in South Dakota, the Vulcans left quite an impression.

While the seven other teams went through one-hour practices at the Sanford Pentagon that were nothing more than layup drills and a shootaround, the Vulcans continued their practice routine, which is more akin to hand-to-hand-combat than basketball. It’s scrimmaging with no fouls being called.

The eight NCAA regional representatives who saw Cal’s routine each commented they had never seen a team practice so hard during a national tournament.

After close wins over Nova Southeastern and Emporia State, Strom said she knew her team was primed to play one of its best games in the final against Cal Baptist.

“I walked into the locker room before the game and the players had their headphones on and were dancing,” Strom said. “I’ve played in NCAA tournaments at Penn State and the players were always quiet and focused before a game. These kids were dancing, just like every other game. They are so different than every other team.”

That was obvious when the Vulcans went to the court for pregame warmups. Cal Baptist’s players already were on the floor, stretching and running. When Cal arrived, the Vulcans’ Irina Kukolj, started doing cartwheels across the court.

The look on the faces of the Cal Baptist’s players was priceless. Moments before the biggest basketball game of their lives, the Vulcans were more concerned about who could do a cartwheel than their opponent.

“That’s our team,” Strom said. “They just don’t know any better.”

Maybe they knew all along that they were better than the competition.

Sports editor Chris Dugan can be reached at dugan@observer-reporter.com.