Alverno College Athletics - Home of the Inferno

MILWAUKEE -- The Northern Athletics Conference announced the awards for the 2009-10 women's basketball season and three Alverno College student-athletes represented the Inferno.

Junior point guard Gabby Allen (Milwaukee, Wis./Bay View) was named to the All-Conference First Team, senior guard Lisa Sorgi (Milwaukee, Wis./Greenfield) was named to the All-Conference Second Team and All-Sportsmanship Team and freshman center Rachel Diedrich (Two Rivers, Wis.) was named to the All-Freshman Team.

The first and second teams are each six-member teams, the All-Sportsmanship team is 13 members and the All-Freshman team is five members comprised of true freshmen.

The Inferno finished the 2009-10 campaign with the best season in school history at 13-13. Their 11-7 conference record put them in a tie for second place in the NAC South Division, earning their first NAC tournament appearance where they lost in overtime to eventual champion Lakeland College in the quarterfinals.

HOWARDS GROVE, Wis. -- Upset-minded Alverno College fell to host Lakeland College 67-61 in overtime in a Northern Athletics Conference tournament quarterfinal game tonight at  Woltzen Gymnasium outside of Sheboygan.

Alverno, the No. 6 seed, ends the season with a 13-13 record, the best season in the 10 year history of the program. The Muskies, the tournament's No. 3 seed, improve to 20-6 and advance to play No. 2 Wisconsin Lutheran College in the NAC semifinals.

"When I took the job in 2007," Alverno head coach Brad Duckworth said. "If you would have told me 3 years later I'm in the tournament, and Lakeland beats us in overtime, and we made their season because they had a chance to avenge a loss to us, I'd say we did pretty good things. Unfortunately that doesn't make the hurt go away at the moment. I'm hurting, and the team is hurting. What a great game. What a fun college basketball game tonight."

MADISON, Wis. -- Alverno College shot a season-low 26.3 percent today as host Edgewood College defeated the Inferno 72-43 in the Northern Athletics Conference North/South Challenge Game.

The challenge games pit the conference’s North Division teams versus the South Division teams, based on the final conference standings. The game does not count as a conference game, but may be used as a tiebreaker for the qualifying teams in the NAC Tournament.

The Eagles (14-11) avenged the early-January loss to the Inferno (13-12) in Milwaukee, where Alverno shot a blistering 57.1 percent for the easy 76-57 victory. Today the Eagles cruised to the easy victory, earning the No. 5 seed in the 2010 NAC Tournament, while the Inferno fell to the No. 6 seed.

Alverno was trailing by only one, 17-16, with 6 minutes to play in the first half before the host Eagles used an 11-0 run to increase their lead to double-digits and coasted to victory.

MILWAUKEE -- Host MSOE defeated Alverno College 69-57 tonight, ending the Inferno's run at the Northern Athletics Conference South Division crown.

The Inferno finish the NAC regular season at 11-7 and are 13-11 overall. Wisconsin Lutheran College defeated Dominican University tonight and secured the South Division title with a 12-6 record in the conference.

"We didn't lose the (South Division) championship tonight," Alverno head coach Brad Duckworth said. "It's okay to lose some on the road. We lost it when we lost at home to Aurora, Benedictine and Dominican."