To win a National Championship is a pretty special thing. To do so while beating all of the top ranked teams in succession might just make it even more special.
Hope College (located in Holland) senior co-captain and Lake Orion High School graduate Megan Noll got to experience this feeling first-hand, as her Flying Dutch beat a slew of talented teams to claim the Division III National Title.
After going undefeated in the Michigan Intercollegiate Athletics Association regular season, Hope won three games in the conference tournament to win that title, and get an automatic bid to the DIII tournament.
In the DIII tourney, they ran off six more victories to end their season on a 30-game win streak.
Hope entered the tournament as the fourth ranked team in DIII. They beat #9 Capital University (Ohio), #3 Washingon University (in St. Louis), #5 DePauw (Ind.), #2 Scranton (PA), and #1 Southern Maine, all in a row.
Hope won the title game against Southern Maine, 69-56. Noll played 18 minutes in the contest.
‘Megan was the guts and glue that held us together,? said Hope Coach Brian Morehouse. ‘She was usually the first person off the bench for us.?
Morehouse praised Noll as a great leader and a great passer, and said she was the team’s ‘defensive stopper.?
‘She did all of the little things that often don’t show up in the stats,? he said.
After starting as a sophomore, Noll was willing to come off the bench for the betterment of the team. She also moved from point guard to a wing.
‘It made us a much, much better team to have her strength come off the bench,? Morehouse said.
Noll said winning the championship took a total team effort.
‘Nobody cared who took the big shot because everybody could in a big game,? she said.
‘We had the toughest region of anybody and our team performed to the best of our ability,? she added, noting that the squad took on an underdog mentality to help them succeed.
‘We knew in each of those games we were going to have to play great games to win,? Noll said. ‘We knew we could do it if we executed the way we had all season.?
Noll and Morehouse agreed that to be the best you have to beat the best.
Hope College just took it to the extreme.
‘That’s something that comes along once in a lifetime,? said Steve Roberts, Noll’s former coach at Lake Orion, of getting to play for a National Championship.
‘To get that opportunity is a great thing, but to win it is 100 times greater,? he said.
Graduating this spring with a degree in secondary education and mathematics, Noll ends her basketball career on top.
She is hoping to return to the area to teach and coach.