Jay McAree
Equinox Staff
She was named the captain of the Women’s Basketball team going into the beginning of the season and senior forward Siobhan Carnell delivered in a big way averaging (16.3 ppg.) and (6.3 ppg.) for the season. Now she is being recognized for it by getting selected to the 2013 New England Women’s Basketball Association Senior All-Star Classic.
Head Coach Keith Boucher described how it works, “[It is] a senior all-star game that’s run by NEWBA. At the end of the season you submit the players you think should have the best chance to play in this game and they select 11 for each team.”
Michelle Berthiaume / Sports Editor
KSC senior Siobhan Carnell drives past a Plymouth State University defender on Feb. 5, 2012. The Owls won in decisive fashion 63-31 over their in-state rival. Carnell had 18 points in the game while also grabbing six rebounds.
“An honor like this means a lot to me,” Carnell said, “Courtney Cirillo played in the game last year so to get the same honor as a really great player that I’ve played with before feels really good, and I think it’s a great way to end my college career.”
When you are a senior athlete, you become more aware of how close everything is to being over and start to see things in a different light. You realize it’s time to step up in a major way and that is precisely what Carnell did as the lone senior on a very young team.
She scored in double figures in nearly all of the team’s games this season and put down a career high 34 points against UMass-Dartmouth back in January, while at the same time setting quite a precedent for how her younger teammates should act on, and off the court.
So what were they keys to her success?
“Just focus and hard work,” Carnell said. “Knowing that I had the opportunity to do something special and capitalizing on that.”
Teammate Brianna McCain added, “She really had to step up this year, and she knew that. It was a lot of pressure and she handled it extremely well leading the team in just about every category.”
She continued, “Last year we had players like Courtney Cirillo, Nikki Cote and Meghan Farell. After we lost them, we were looking for more people like that, and [Carnell] took on the role of all three of them.”
Carnell said she is especially looking forward to sharing the court with Catherine O’Connell from Newbury College who she has played with since fifth grade, all the way up to high school.
“We are on the same team, and it’s a great thing that we get to play together one last time after we are both done with college,” Carnell said.
The game was held on March 21, 2013 at Western New England College in Springfield, Mass.
Needless to say, putting on those KSC colors for what inevitably was the last time meant a lot.
“It was exciting because I never thought I would be playing or wearing a Keene State uniform again so it feels great to get another chance,” Carnell said.
Jay McAree can be contacted at jmcaree@keene-equinox.com