{"id":4202,"date":"2022-06-09T13:40:01","date_gmt":"2022-06-09T13:40:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.northcentral.edu\/blog\/?p=4202"},"modified":"2022-06-09T13:40:01","modified_gmt":"2022-06-09T13:40:01","slug":"making-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.northcentral.edu\/blog\/making-history\/","title":{"rendered":"Making History: Women&#8217;s Basketball Team Captures First-Ever UMAC Title"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p>When the North Central University women\u2019s basketball team won the UMAC championship and progressed to the NCAA DIII National Tournament, it was a dream come true and a historic moment for the school. Hannah Grubbs, a senior journalism major and Rams guard, described the night as a surreal experience for the team.<\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p>Grubbs grew up watching March Madness, never once imagining that she would be a part of the D3 level. Being able to see the names of her team members on the big TV screen, traveling, and playing in a packed gymnasium only added to the memorability and wonder of this event. After gaining a steady momentum at the start of the season, COVID forced the Rams to slow down and reprioritize their team goals and strategies for the remaining games. They focused a lot of time and energy on trusting both the process on the court and their teammates. Communication became the key, especially in a packed gym. \u201cWe had to be steady and realize that if they score or go on a run, it\u2019s okay; we\u2019ll bounce back,\u201d stated Grubbs. The women\u2019s basketball team did just that. This season not only boasted NCU\u2019s first-ever UMAC Tournament Championship title, but the longest winning streak, the best winning percentage, and the most UMAC wins.<\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0Behind the team and these statistics is seven year veteran Head Coach Paul Brunner \u201914, \u201922 M.A. \u201cWe tried all season long to be intentional with our mission as a Christ-centered basketball program that develops champions and graduates leaders,\u201d Brunner said. \u201cFor us, this means it\u2019s less about how we play and more about who we desire to become\u2014as athletes, students, leaders, and people.\u201d Brunner said the team never stated a specific goal to win the UMAC but instead focused all their energy and effort on becoming the type of people that would be able to accomplish things we desired. \u201cWe often used the phrase, \u2018Who we become is far more important than what we achieve,\u2019\u201d Brunner said. \u201cThe \u2018who\u2019 our players became is what I am most proud of as I reflect on this season.\u201d <\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p>Despite being historic and exhilarating, the end of the season was bittersweet for Grubbs and the other upper-class students. Seven seniors played their last season and said farewell to the court. Grubbs remarked that the upperclassman put in hard work and extra time, pushing towards success and UMAC Championship because they would only have that chance once. \u201cMost people don\u2019t recognize what goes into having a historic season like this,\u201d Brunner said, \u201cand the students deserve all of the credit. This season was so special for our program because we felt embraced by the entire university, and we always felt like we were a part of something much bigger than just ourselves. As we talked as a team after the season, we all agreed that trophies are cool, but relationships are cooler.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When the North Central University women\u2019s basketball team won the UMAC championship and progressed to the NCAA DIII National Tournament, it was a dream come true and a historic moment for the school. Hannah Grubbs, a senior journalism major and Rams guard, described the night as a surreal experience for the team. Grubbs grew up [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":126,"featured_media":4041,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47,50,52,38],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4202","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni-friends","category-athletics","category-college-of-church-leadership","category-ncu-news"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.1.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Making History: Women&#039;s Basketball Team Captures First-Ever UMAC Title - Table Salt | NCU Blog College Basketball, Christian College<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"When the North Central University women\u2019s basketball team won the UMAC championship and progressed to the NCAA DIII National Tournament, it was a dream come true and a historic moment for the school.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.northcentral.edu\/blog\/making-history\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Making History: Women&#039;s Basketball Team Captures First-Ever UMAC Title - 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