Number-Two Ranked Hope Spoils Lady Jackets' Home Opener

DEFIANCE, Ohio – The number-two ranked Hope College Flying Dutch, and their First-Team All-American center, Carrie Snikkers, handed the Lady Jackets a 76-56 defeat on Tuesday evening to spoil the Jackets' 2010-11 home-opener. DC falls to 0-4 to start the season with the loss.

Hope took the lead on a pair of free throws from Snikkers in the first 20 seconds of the game, and never looked back, building the lead to as much as 16 points in the half before going into the break with a 35-21 advantage. Snikkers went into halftime with 15 points, and ended the contest with 27 points on eight-of-nine shooting from the floor and nine-of-nine shooting from the free throw line.

Defiance made the first field goal of the second half to cut the lead to 12, but the Dutch proceeded with a 21-3 run to claim their game-high 33-point advantage with 15 minutes remaining. The Jackets nailed eight second-half three-pointers to cut the deficit to 20 points at the end of regulation, significantly less than Hope's 30-point average margin over victory.

Courtney Schmersal led the Jackets in scoring with nine points in 21 minutes of action, while freshman forward, Ashley Birchmeier, finished second on the team with a career-high eight points.

The Lady Jackets will play their first conference game of the season on Wednesday, December 1, when they travel to Anderson for a match with the Ravens (1-1). The game is set to begin at 7:30 p.m.