Kirk Lawler
Frosh forward Rachel Slaney has experience with prep basketball powerhouse Barneveld.
While the University of Wisconsin women’s basketball team has struggled since its last NCAA tournament appearance in 2010, the Madison College women’s basketball program — which won the National Junior College Athletic Association’s Division III title that same year — is closing in on another national championship.
The No. 5-ranked WolfPack wrapped up the regular season last Saturday with a convincing 69-33 victory over Harper College at Redsten Gym. Madison College’s 25-3 overall record is tops in the eight-team North Central Community College Conference, and its 9-3 conference record is one game behind Rock Valley College.
“The last time we had [only] three losses, we won the national championship,” says head coach Jessica Pelzel, who coached that 2010 team.
This year’s WolfPack hopes history repeats itself. Madison College and Rock Valley College each received first-round byes in this weekend’s NJCAA Division III Region IV Tournament at Alverno College. The WolfPack will play Joliet Junior College, a team it’s beaten five out of the past seven times, in a semifinal on Feb 26. The regional championship is Feb. 28.
The Region IV winner then will host the winner of the Region XII tournament, with that winner moving on to the NJCAA Division III National Tournament in Lincroft, N.J.
This WolfPack season was not without its challenges. Sophomore guard Taylor Nelson missed much of the N4C schedule with a knee injury and then re-aggravated it. Pelzel hopes she’ll return to action in Friday’s semifinal.
Madison College also will rely on forward Rachel Slaney, a freshman who formerly played for basketball powerhouse Barneveld High School, and sophomore Jenna Endres, who plays all five positions.
Despite blowing out opponents by an average of more than 24 points per game, the WolfPack dropped two late-season games. “We hadn’t lost back-to-back games in a long time,” says Pelzel, now in her 10th season.
Unlike coaches at four-year NCAA colleges and universities, Pelzel works with players for a maximum of two years, and the team practices for only two hours per day.
“I don’t get to develop them over a four-year period,” she says. “And because they aren’t on scholarships, our kids need to work. Most of my players work 15 to 30 hours a week.”
All of which makes this opportunity to be among the country’s elite junior college women’s basketball teams that much sweeter.
“We know what we need to do,” Pelzel says. “Now we just need to execute.”