Women's Basketball sends Seniors out with a Win

(Nashua, New Hampshire) The Rivier University Women's Basketball team finished their best season in program history this afternoon as they defeated Anna Maria College 95-84. With the win, Rivier improves to 19-6 and finishes with a 9-2 mark in the Great Northeast Athletic Conference. The 19 wins is a new school record and the 9 conference wins have the Raiders sitting in the #3 spot in the upcoming GNAC Tournament.

Three different Raiders led the team with 16 points each as senior AJ Guidi (Derry, NH) knocked down 5 three pointers and junior Deanna Purcell (Hudson, NH) went 9-of-10 from the line for the team high in points. Joining both Guidi and Purcell was freshman Savanna Butterfield (Londonerry, NH) who recorded another double-double with 16 points and 11 rebounds. Senior Erin Sweeney (Chicopee, Mass.) also added 14 points in the win.

This also marked the last regular season home game for a Senior class that leaves RivNation as the all-time winningest class in program history. Prior to the start of the game all six seniors were honored. Joining Guidi and Sweeney in the scoring column were seniors Ryan Baker (Whitinsville, Mass) – 8 points, Britney Lane (Waterford, Vermont) – 8 points, Laura Yesu (Longmeadow, Mass) – 6 points, and Jaclyn Penniman (Dudley, Mass) – 2 points.

Anna Maria received a solid effort from Katie Pryor who scored 30 points and recorded 8 rebounds. Taylor Walker added 16 points and Trafficia Warburton chipped in 15 in the loss. Warburton also collected a team high 9 rebounds in the contest.

Next up for Rivier will be a home playoff game on Tuesday night as for the second consecutive year they will host the first round of the GNAC Tournament. The third seeded Raiders will tip-off against the #7 seed, the University of Saint Joseph at 7pm inside the Muldoon Gymnasium.