SOMERS, WIS. - The Saginaw Valley State University women's basketball team ended their season on the road Saturday afternoon against Wisconsin-Parkside University. The Cardinals (15-13, 10-8 GLIAC) came up short against the Rangers (18-10, 13-5 GLIAC) in a tightly contested, conference matchup. SVSU finished the season in a tie for fourth place in the Great Lakes Athletic Conference.
Kaitlyn Zarycki dropped 18 points in the loss while Tori DePerry had 17 in her final regular season game in the red and white. Freshman, Lauren Sollom found herself in double digits scoring 10 points as well. The team had 14 assists and 36 points in the paint. Both squads shot 3-16 from deep throughout the contest.
The game got off to a slow start for the Cardinals as they found themselves trailing 8-0 to open the contest. Tori DePerry opened the scoring for SVSU with a free throw to end the drought. On the next possession, Lauren Sollom found the bottom of the bucket with a layup which would start a 6-2 run. Parkside answered with 9-3 run of their own before Tyler Scheid converted a layup with 1:44 to play. Lydia Meredith was able to beat the buzzer thanks to an offensive rebound by Jessica Massey which set her up for the score. Leaving the Cardinals trailing by five headed into the second quarter.
Freshman, Emma Dziezgowski started the scoring for the second quarter with a shot from downtown and cut the lead to two points. The Rangers answered with two of their own about a minute later. SVSU then went on a 10-1 run to get their first lead of the game that was capped off by a free throw from Lydia Meredith. The two squads traded buckets for the remainder of the frame with Kaitlyn Zarycki knocking down a jumper to send the Cardinals to the locker room down by three.
The second half was opened with an 8-0 by the Rangers which was ended thanks to a layup by DePerry halfway through the frame. Sollom buried a jumper of her own to spark an 8-2 run for SVSU that would finish out the quarter. Kaitlyn Zarycki knocked down her 35th consecutive free throw in the last five games to leave the Cardinals trailing by six into the final quarter.
Zarycki continued where she left off to start the fourth, knocking down a jumper and adding two more free throws on the next possession to cut the lead to four. The two squads battled back and forth, gridlocked with a six-point differential. However, Parkside pulled away in the closing minutes. The Lady Cards would miss their final scoring opportunities as time expired and drop the contest with a score of 75-65
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The Cardinals will play on Wednesday, March 1st in Marquette, Michigan for the first round of the conference playoffs against Northern Michigan University at 5:30 p.m.