Making Big Strides

Not even two weeks after the season wrapped up with an 85-66 loss to Hope College, Erin Hahn ’23 was inside Ban Johnson Arena working on her game.

Fresh off 22 victories and the program’s first NCAA Tournament win, Hahn and her teammates are focused on the future of women’s basketball at Marietta College.

“My teammates and I have realized that we have set a high standard for the future of Marietta women’s basketball,” she says. “We want to continue to raise the bar each year by continuously working hard day in and day out. We want to be a well-known program for always being successful. My teammates and I want incoming players to keep the standard just as high for the future of the program.”

The Pioneers finished third in the Ohio Athletic Conference but based on a solid, non-conference schedule and a victory over nationally-ranked John Carroll earned Marietta its second trip to the NCAA Division III postseason.

Marietta defeated Wittenberg 65-50 in the NCAA Tournament opener before losing to the eventual national champion. With the men also qualifying for the tournament, Marietta was one of only 12 Division III schools in the nation to have both their men and women in the postseason.

“This past basketball season was the greatest season I have been a part of so far. We accomplished so much throughout the course of the year,” says Hahn, who earned first team All-OAC recognition. “We knew we had the potential to be a very successful team if we worked hard each day. It all started with our preseason challenges, we pushed ourselves each day to be better for the season. By the time our season came around, we were able to fight back and win some games that were close because of what we did in our preseason. For example, one of our biggest accomplishments of the whole season was beating John Carroll at their place. We worked so hard each practice leading up to that game. We never let up during that game, we fought back when we were losing.”

Coach Kole Vivian considers this past season a major step forward for the program and is looking forward to the upcoming campaign.

The progress that was made and the talent returning in 2022-23 should make the Pioneers one of the top teams in the conference and the region.

“Looking ahead to next season, we have some leadership and perimeter play to make up that we lost to graduation, but we had a bunch of talented student-athletes on the bench last year that didn’t get to shine on game days because of players ahead of them,” Vivian says. “And I like our recruiting class that we are bringing in. I would expect we will be one of the top three teams in the preseason OAC rankings and should be getting national preseason Top 25 votes as well.”

Hahn had the best all-around season for Marietta, averaging 9.9 points and 8.0 rebounds a game. In the win over Wittenberg, she finished with 10 points and nine rebounds.

“Winning the first NCAA tournament game was the most exciting part about our whole season,” Hahn says. “Getting a bid to the tournament was so exciting to begin with because we had worked so hard for that moment. … We were given an opportunity to make history as a team and being able to come out with a win was an incredible feeling. The emotions that came after our first win were so crazy. The locker room after the game was the best post-game talk we have ever had. The atmosphere after the game will be a moment that we all will remember forever.”

Olivia Gribble ’24 led the Pioneers with 10.5 points a game, including a team-best 15 in the NCAA victory.

“This past season was exciting for not only our team but the future of the program as a whole,” Gribble says. “It allowed us to unlock our potential on a national level and has been a motivational factor for us going into next season. … The future of this program is bright. We have emphasized the fact that we are worthy of being called champions and are hungry for more than just a conference title. We had a really competitive team last season and I anticipate this year’s team to make even more history.”