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College students most likely to go abroad

According to a recent study conducted by the Institute of International Education, the College of William and Mary has the highest percentage of undergraduate students who choose to study abroad of all public doctorate institutions in the United States.

The IIE’s Open Doors 2011 Report showed that 43.9 percent of students at the College have studied abroad in the 2009-10 academic year. This is a 3.6 percent increase from 2008-09, when the percentage was 40.3, following a 6 percent decrease from 2007-08, when the percentage peaked at 46.3.

These numbers correspond with the national trends indicated by the report. Overall, numbers slowed down after the economic downturn beginning in 2007, but began increasing again in 2009-10.

“I think we’ve been paying attention to this for a long time,” Chair of the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures and associate professor of Hispanic studies Silvia Tandeciarz said about the popularity of study abroad at the College. “I think that as a liberal arts college we emphasize — maybe more than other state institutions, I don’t know — the importance of breadth and depth in our education, and part of that breadth is an international exposure. I think that the faculty deserve a tremendous amount of credit because they are constantly recruiting students for study abroad programs.”

Tandeciarz is the faculty liaison for the semester study abroad program in La Plata, Argentina and participates in the governance of study abroad programs at the College.

“I don’t see how you could be educated to be a citizen in the 21st century without some kind of global understanding and global perspective,” Tandeciarz said.

Tandeciarz attributed the College’s preponderance of students who study abroad in part to the nature of the student population and in part to the unique opportunities that students receive abroad.

“I think that our students tend to think about the global reality that they’re engaged in and are very active in terms of finding ways to make it possible to study abroad, whether it’s over the summer or on semester-long programs or even short research trips,” Tandeciarz said. “I think where there’s been a lot of growth has been in faculty-mentored research abroad. The culture of study abroad, I would say, has shifted over the years to more intense mentored undergraduate research experiences, where students aren’t simply going abroad and immersing themselves in the culture and the language and living with host families and studying in classes — sometimes with foreign nationals, other times just with American students — but they’re also going abroad thinking about original research that they can undertake in the field and so using that experience as a lab where they’re pursuing independent research questions under the guidance of faculty mentors. And I think that’s really very exciting and something that’s very special about [the College] in particular and our study abroad [programs].”

Kelsey Conway ’12 agreed, citing the students and the opportunities available to them as the reasons behind the College’s superior ranking.

“I think it’s the students and then the students mixed with the opportunities that we have available for us here [that] really make it so that we have a good study abroad program,” Conway said.

Though many students clearly do take advantage of the study abroad opportunities that the College has to offer, others feel as though obstacles such as finances, major requirements and extracurricular commitments impede them from going abroad. However, there are several solutions to these problems.

“I’m on the golf team here, so I knew that I wasn’t going to be able to go abroad during the semester,” Conway, who spent the summer after her freshman year in Galway, Ireland, said. “I knew that the only time I would be able to do anything would be over the summer.”

Originally, Conway’s interest lay not in study abroad, but just in visiting Ireland.

“It wasn’t really to have the study abroad experience; it was more to visit Ireland specifically, but it turned out that I got a lot more out of doing it by studying abroad than going to visit personally,” Conway said.

The faculty of the College is also trying to make study abroad more accessible to those who believe it to be beyond their reach.

Meanwhile, the Wendy and Emery Reves Center for International Studies is working to advocate and facilitate study abroad for students.

“I think it is getting the message out there over and over that this can be a really important part of your academic course, and then once students are convinced, helping them work out those practical problems — the finances, the academics — getting over those hurdles,” Theresa Johansson, assistant director of the Global Education Office at the Reves Center, said.

College weighs financial paths

Tuition troubles at the College of William and Mary have reached beyond campus grounds, sparking debate in The Washington Post.

In a Nov. 6 op-ed piece in The Post entitled “Invisible Hand at William and Mary,” Peter Galuszka criticized College President Taylor Reveley’s ideas about conserving College resources by allowing the market to set tuition rates.

“This imbalance [in state support in education] has put pressure on the schools to push hard for out-of-state students attracted by the Virginia schools’ academic standards and pleasant campuses,” Galuska wrote.
“It also makes it harder for in-staters to win admittance. This can make for tears and gnashing of teeth in the spring when acceptance letters go out. (Full disclosure, I am a U.Va. parent).”

While the state provided 43 percent of the College’s funding in 1981, it now provides a mere 13 percent of the school’s budget. Over the past 30 years, tuition increases have become a fact of life for College students.

“A serious move back toward the support of a generation ago would be manna from heaven,” Reveley said in an email. “There isn’t the remotest possibility of this happening, however. Other demands on state revenues are too great. The era of significant state support is over, in my judgment.”

The strategy, explained by Reveley in an interview with Virginia Business magazine, is part of a new financial model stemming from the College’s Six Year Plan released in October 2011.

“The six-year plan doesn’t contemplate ‘market tuition’ for in-state students, however, simply a step toward their contributing more of what it actually costs to educate them,” Reveley said in an email. “At present there is a huge gap between what in-state and out-of-state students pay. We need to narrow it some, now that the state has cut back so much on the subsidy it provides for in-state students. While we have already drawn near to what it’s realistic to charge out-of-state students, we’re not all the way there yet. Thus, out-of-state tuition is likely to increase some, too, next spring.”

The current price tag of a College education hovers at $22,024 for in-state students and $44,854 for out-of-state students per year, yet it currently costs the College several thousand dollars more to educate one College student than what the state and tuition provide.

“In 1906, W&M deeded its real estate to the Commonwealth, and we’re now firmly and irreparably part of the state system,” Reveley said. “What we need is for the state to let the College use its strength in the market place to support itself, since the state taxpayers are no longer able to do so.”

Galuszka’s piece prompted Rector of the College and chairman of the Board of Visitors Jeffery Trammell to respond with another op-ed piece in The Washington Post supporting Reveley’s statements.

“Those who benefit from the university must make up the bulk of the lost state support,” Trammell wrote in the op-ed. “An essential component of our new funding model, however, will be to devote a considerable portion of any increased tuition revenue to financial aid for students from middle-class Virginia families who need it most.”

Financial aid has not kept pace with what other universities offer.

“I’ve had folks telling me that all things being equal they like W&M better but they couldn’t get financial aid so they went elsewhere. We really need to be competitive with this,” Trammell said. “Also, if I’ve got a bright young professor that’s getting offers from the best universities in the country how are we going to keep them if we don’t have the money to keep them? If were not charging market value?”

In Virginia Business magazine, Reveley said that out-of-state tuition was nearing its “saturation point,” making in-state tuition the most likely to rise.

According to Vice President for Finance Sam Jones ’75, M.B.A. ’80, this could mean in-state tuition increasing to the rates similar to schools of comparable quality. While Jones said that in-state tuition would not near that of the current cost of out-of-state students, the price tag for a Virginia student to attend the College would have to increase in order to compensate for a lack of funding.

“If the state came in tomorrow and offered us more money, we wouldn’t raise tuition. This is a matter of necessity,” Jones said.

Trammell noted that, if passed, the plan would increase tuition prices gradually over time.

“The Board’s commitment is the quality of William and Mary. People come to the College because of its excellence, they don’t come there because it’s the cheapest school in the country, and that shouldn’t be our goal. Our goal should be to provide a great education with financial aid for middle-income families. We just can’t sustain that educational model without greater resources,” Trammell said.

The administration has sent its financial model to the Virginia General Assembly for review. If passed and approved, the plan will be given to the Board of Visitors for a final decision in April.

“We won’t know what’s going to happen to W&M tuition until the BOV actually sets it next spring,” Reveley said in an email. “There is no meaningful way now of predicting how the state of the national economy and of Virginia politics are going to play out over the next five months or so.”

Despite Galuska’s warning that the College is paving the way to go private with such a strategy, Jones denies that this option is on the table. In order to privatize, the College would need to buy all its buildings and grounds back from the state with a price tag of more than $2 billion, after receiving approval from the state to break away.

“Privatizing is not anything we are proposing right now,” Jones said. “You can do the math and make the numbers work out, but politically, it’s not something we are promoting at all.”

For now, the College’s primary strategies to address its financial situation are making operations more efficient and encouraging alumni donations.

Redistricting returns to political arena

Richmond politics are heating up once again in preparation for the 2012 Virginia General Assembly session, which is scheduled to begin in January. The newly reinstated Senate Majority Leader Tommy Norment (R-3) is advocating another examination of the layout of the state’s representation districts.

Redistricting occurs in each state every 10 years if the census results indicate that reapportionment is needed. Norment and his Republican peers —who now effectively control both houses of the General Assembly — are using this as justification for another reevaluation.

However, some are expressing concerns that minority party politicians could refuse to come to the session, denying the majority party the quorum required to call a vote, as has happened before in Texas.
Norment is particularly upset with the new layout of his district.

“It’s ridiculous the way they’ve spread it out,” Norment said in a statement. “I represent twelve jurisdictions, stretching from Suffolk to King and Queen County.”

The City of Williamsburg was also removed from Norment’s district and placed in that of Sen. John Miller (D-1).

Many expressed concerns regarding where Williamsburg would eventually be placed.
Williamsburg Mayor and professor of economics Clyde Haulman went so far as to write to the governor during the process earlier this year, expressing his concerns over the possibility of splitting the city between two districts.

“I do not understand the motivation to go after Williamsburg,” Young Democrats President Katie Deabler ’12 said. “Localities being split is a serious concern.”

Miller is less concerned about the new maps. He believes that there are more important issues to be considered by the General Assembly.

“I’ve just spent two days with the Senate Finance Committee,” Miller said in a statement. “The Commonwealth has some big problems. People want us to concentrate on transportation, education and filling the budget gap, not revisiting redistricting.”

The redistricting done in the last General Assembly session earlier this year was not accomplished easily. Governor Bob McDonnell (R) proceeded to authorize Executive Order 31, creating a Bipartisan Advisory Commission on Redistricting.

Law students and undergraduates from the College were on the teams selected in a Governor’s Commission competition for redistricting, and the council considered their plans.

After the Commission’s recommendations, the legislature submitted a plan to McDonnell.
The redistricting done in the last General Assembly session earlier this year was not accomplished easily.

The governor was offered one option by the General Assembly where both houses planned redistricting separately.

This was at a time when Democrats controlled the State Senate and Republicans controlled the House of Delegates. Voicing concerns over the legality of the final product and the large number of cities it divided, McDonnell vetoed the plan.

The plan was redrafted, sent to McDonnell again and approved.

“They obviously had their own agenda when they were moving forward with it,” Alex Bramsen ’12, one undergraduate team member, said at the time of the original redistricting. “We were grateful to Senator Miller, but realistically we knew that we were not going to receive the level of serious consideration that would be required.”

President Reveley goes rogue: Realistic solution comes at a steep price

Over the past 30 years, state funding has dropped from 43 percent to 13 percent of the College of William and Mary’s operating budget. As a possible solution, College President Taylor Reveley has suggested raising in-state tuition and basing it on the market.

In a Washington Post editorial, blogger Peter Galuszka argued that Reveley’s proposal “could help clear the way to privatizing Virginia’s precious public university gems. There’s a strong undercurrent, especially among privatization-loving conservatives, to extract state funding entirely and make the schools private.”

Under Reveley’s proposal, some of the increased revenue from higher in-state tuition would go toward financial aid. Taking a different side of the argument, a writer for the same blog criticized this part of the proposal as a “wealth-distribution scheme … from each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs.”

I doubt that Reveley will pursue a policy of either extreme right-wing privatization or some sort of communist redistribution of wealth. I especially doubt that he will pursue both of these simultaneously.
Instead, Reveley is taking a very practical approach to a very divisive problem. Of course it would be nice if the state did not continuously lower the College’s funding, but Reveley cannot control state funding. What he can control are the College’s policies, and as the state is proving to be unreliable, he must use that control in order to stop our dependence on the state.

It seems simple, but take a moment to think of all the public figures you know who have had to deal with an unpopular issue. Generally, people in this situation advocate for a popular solution that has little to no basis in reality — consider the many proposals in the national debt debate. Incidently, the University of Virginia is addressing the issue by advocating that the state give Virginia colleges more funding. If this does not happen — as it most likely will not — U.Va. will not have a clear plan to keep itself running smoothly in the future.

Reveley does have a plan, even if it isn’t ideal. Student debt is a problem, as is the widespread inaccessibility of a college education. As U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said in a speech Tuesday, “The difficulty of reducing the price of college and student debt cannot become a discussion-ending excuse for inaction.” If there are ways to increase financial productivity and efficiency, we should pursue them. What we should not do is advocate solutions that will never exist, ignore realities, or fail to put forth potentially controversial but tangible ideas for discussion. In this respect, Reveley has certainly succeeded.

Support gay marriage in its own right

A few weeks ago, I was walking past the tables outside the Sadler Center dining hall, which consisted of the usual roster of charitable fundraisers, Greek events and AMP speakers, when an unusual one caught my eye, and I doubled back.

A sign was decorated with a bright sky blue canopy and two golden gates. On top of the gates was written, “Do you think you’re going to Heaven? Take our easy 2 question quiz to find out.” I stopped and talked with the local pastor for a while before the subject of same-sex marriage came up.

As a double major in government and religious studies, I find the issue of same-sex marriage fascinating. The battle over same-sex marriage is one of the political debates that clearly has been filtered through a religious prism.

While these political and religious forces can certainly be felt here, and the College of William and Mary can claim both a significant number of Christian student groups and a vocal LGBTQI community, the College is fortunate not to be rankled by the polarization of our political process.

However, one day we will leave the Williamsburg bubble and take our places as stewards of our nation’s future. It is critical to examine the context of our core beliefs, specifically in the controversial same-sex marriage debate, so we will be ready to take charge when that happens.
I believe that conservative elements in modern-day Christianity are wrong to use the Bible as justification for denying marriage equality. Some might argue that I am ill-suited to discuss Christian theology, as I am not Christian. But it does not matter whether I subscribe to the Christian Bible or any other specific scripture.

Taking my cue from the late David Foster Wallace’s 2005 commencement speech at Kenyon College, I believe that everyone, atheists included, chooses something to worship. Given that we all do worship something, we all ascribe some measure of holiness to our value system.

Therefore, the question is not whether I believe the Holy Bible is holy or eternal. Instead, it’s becoming increasingly clear that the question to be asked of the text is what exactly does “holy” mean? Should consecrating a document as holy free it from continuing reinterpretation?

I consulted religious studies professor Sandy Jo Rogers about the issue. Rogers is simultaneously working toward her doctoral degree in biblical studies with an emphasis on the Hebrew Torah at Union Presbyterian Seminary in Richmond and her ordination at Ginter Park Baptist Church.

Rogers explained that “the Bible has been used to support holy wars and genocides, all kinds of hatred throughout human history and this [homophobia] is just another example of that. It doesn’t make the use of it right. Anyone who is using the Bible to oppress,” Rogers finished, “is guilty of breaking the third commandment. That is what it means to use the Lord’s name lightly, that is what it means to take the Lord’s name in vain.”

Furthermore, context is key. On the same pages as the verses in the book of Leviticus that many use to justify anti-gay marriage positions are other verses prohibiting planting different kinds of seeds in the same field and wearing clothes from multiple sources. Honing in on verses condemning homosexual relations for a specific people during a specific time divorces the message from its larger aims.

I am not a Christian. As such, I have no real authority to claim that my simplistic theological interpretation is the correct one. However, as a citizen of a country whose politics are increasingly being shaped by the presence of Christianity — see California’s 2008 Proposition 8 and Ken Cuccinelli’s 2010 ban on sexual orientation-based legal protections — I have every right to demand that one interpretation of a holy text not be deemed holy itself.

“Buck Up”

It is impossible to avoid hearing about the College of William and Mary’s current financial struggles. The College needs money that quite simply isn’t there right now. As state funding for the school drops, the cost of tuition continues to increase, and every year there is an attempt to raise tuition either for out-of-state students or in-state students by some delegate in the Virginia General Assembly.

In a recent interview with “Virginia Business Magazine,” College President Taylor Reveley described his belief that tuition needs to be based on market price, which means increasing the amount in-state students pay. Reveley also said in the interview that some of the funding generated from the increase would go toward financial aid so as to not deter students from applying. According to Reveley, out-of-state student tuition has reached a point where it cannot be increased; in-state tuition has not.

After the interview, a writer for the Washington Post, and the parent of a student at the University of Virginia with more than a little bias, worried that Reveley’s plan will lead to privatization and contemplated other courses of action. In an editorial response, the rector of the Board of Visitors at the College, Jeff Trammell, supported Reveley’s views while ensuring that the College had no intention to privatize.

Reveley’s interview, in conjunction with Trammell’s response, indicates a very different tone in the discussion of raising tuition and where the College stands financially. Reveley knows the comments may be unpopular with some people — like delegates from Northern Virginia — yet he seems confident in talking about this possibly polarizing plan. In speaking to a business journal, Reveley went straight to the people who would understand his position rather than begging the General Assembly for funding. Yes, this move is bold. Yes, the College is taking its finances into its own hands because it is not receiving enough state support. This move may even be a bluff to raise awareness that if the state won’t give the College more money, the College will look elsewhere.

We obviously need the money. By now everyone should understand that the state has all but stopped funding the College’s operating costs. The College is a prestigious school, but without the cash to hire professors, conduct research projects, or incentivize intelligent students to apply, our reputation is in jeopardy. Other state schools have other funding options and from that funding they can afford better facilities and support. Other state schools don’t have buildings that are sinking into the ground or that have been closed for three years.

In the entire country, Virginia ranked 38th in state and local appropriations for students — as compared to North Carolina and Maryland which were ranked 10th and 11th, respectively. In case you’re getting a little mentally overwhelmed at the end of finals, that means only 11 other states have worse funding allocation per students.

While Reveley’s comments may seem a little hard-hearted, his plan is one that will allow the College to effectively finance itself. The College needs to maintain its reputation — even if that means students will have to shell out a little more in return for a valuable education.

Men’s basketball: College falls to Richmond at home, 92-61

For a team that lives and dies with the three-point game, there will be nights like Wednesday night. William and Mary went 5-20 from behind the arc en-route to a 92-61 home shellacking at the hands of Richmond.

Couple the College’s inability to shoot with a porous defense, add red-hot Richmond shooting and the result is a drubbing that moves the Tribe to 1-7 on the season. Seemingly a step behind and a second too late for the vast majority of the game, the Tribe defense watched as the Spiders shot an impressive 51.7 percent (15-29) from three-point land and 62.1(36-58) percent from the floor.

“I felt [the Spiders] were incredible,” head coach Tony Shaver said. “I’m embarrassed by our play tonight, I really am. I’ve got to get this team to respond better than we are right now.”

Sophomore forward Tim Rusthoven, playing just his second game after returning from a foot injury, provided most of the Tribe’s bright spots in the first half, finishing the game with a team-high 15 points and 8 rebounds. Alongside Rusthoven, junior guard Matt Rum made his first start of the season, ending the game with 13 points and going 4-5 from the field, 2-3 from behind the arc.

Despite solid individual efforts, the Spiders quickly set the tone and headed into the half with a 26 point lead.

“[Richmond] scoring almost 50 points in the first half is unacceptable, you’re not going to win a game giving up that many points,” Rum said.

The first half saw seven Spider three-point attempts drain the rim. Freshman guard Kendall Anthony led Richmond with 17 points in only 18 minutes of action.

“We got some open shots early to build confidence for people,” Anthony said.

As the second half got under way, the College began to play with a bit more passion. Off the bench, junior guard Doug Howard provided a spark both offensively and defensively. While the offense still sputtered, the defense tightened up.

“We came out fighting a little more, a little more aggressive, we just got to do that for 40 minutes,” Rusthoven said.

Despite the Tribe’s effort, the Spiders continued to maintain their insurmountable lead. With the game well out of reach and Richmond’s reserves on the floor, the College’s freshman talent began to show itself.

Silent for most of the game, freshman guard Marcus Thornton finished with 10 points while going a perfect 4-4 from the free-throw line. Perhaps the only Tribe highlight of the night came on a Thornton steal, after which he flushed a two-handed dunk.

Poor defense by the College and stellar execution by the Spiders wrote the script of the game. Coming off of some injuries to key players, Richmond coach Chris Mooney saw the outcome as a result of great timing for his squad.

“I’m pleased with the win and how we played,” Mooney said, “I think we caught William and Mary on a tough night and made a lot of shots. You’re not going to make 15 three’s too often.”

Aside from a lights-out shooting performance, the Spiders also displayed an intimidating defensive force. Senior center Darrius Garrett lead the cause with five of Richmond’s seven blocks.

“I let [my team] know, don’t get comfortable, stay hungry all night,” Garrett said.

As the College falls to 1-7 on the season, the focus for the players and coach turns to the defensive side of the ball. Richmond dominated the fast break points, 14 to the Tribe’s four, and scored 32 points in the paint. The Spiders had five players score in the double-digits.

“It’s just a question of us being better on defense and [we] got to keep working at it,” Rum said.
Shaver showed more emotion about his team’s effort.

“I think our team was hurt. I thought we got punched in the mouth in the first half and didn’t respond very well — we didn’t stand our ground and fight very well. I think that’s something we’ve always done,” Shaver said.

The College hits the road for the seventh time this season as they visit Georgia State Saturday. The game will begin the College’s CAA conference schedule.

Women’s basketball: Too easy

William and Mary continued its hot start to the 2011-12 campaign Wednesday, cruising to a 76-43 win against visiting Longwood. With its fourth win of the season, the Tribe has already eclipsed its 2010-11 win total.

The College (4-2) carried out a campaign of attrition against the Lancers (1-6), meticulously building up an insurmountable lead throughout the game, finishing with a 33-point victory.

The decisive victory was largely due to the Tribe’s whopping rebounding advantage of 51-28, which led to 12 more shots for the College than Longwood.

Junior center Jaclyn McKenna said that rebounding has been one of the key factors the College has been working on lately.

The Lancers held the lead for the first five minutes of regulation, and scored with ease. It wasn’t until senior guard Taysha Pye checked in that the Tribe’s domination of Longwood began. Pye provided an instant spark as she scored four points in her first 1 minute, 30 seconds on the floor.

Taylor chose to play an intense trapping zone defense for most of the first half, which rushed the Longwood offense into miscues and poor shots. The effectiveness of the Tribe’s zone in the first half was apparent through the 12 Longwood turnovers at halftime as the College took a 36-25 lead into the locker room.

The steady unraveling of the Lancers accelerated in the second half as senior guard Katherine DeHenzel grabbed the reins of the offense and orchestrated a slew of devastating cuts and passes. Pye also proved to be too much for the Lancers, finishing with 15 points on a 7 of 10 shooting performance, with four rebounds and a pair of assists. The team is 3-0 since Pye was allowed back on the court after violating team rules.

“I wouldn’t say it’s me, but it’s just the cohesiveness of the whole team,” Pye said, calling the current squad the best she’s played on in her four years at the College. “We have so much depth. We have people that can play all down our roster.”

Despite some early foul trouble, DeHenzel logged 11 points, four assists and three steals. As of Nov. 27, the senior led the nation in steals per game, averaging 5.5.

In the second half, the Tribe switched to its regular zone defense, hampering the Lancers’ shooting ability as the team hit just 8 of its 26 shots in the final 20 minutes.

“When we switched to a flat zone they just couldn’t shoot the ball,” Taylor said.

As has been commonplace in some of the College’s blowout wins this season, all four of the Tribe’s freshman saw action in the waning minutes, playing solid team basketball to build on the commanding lead.

Although junior forward Emily Correal, who came in averaging close to a double-double, struggled from the floor, shooting 2-10 on the night, fellow frontcourt member, junior center Jaclyn McKenna was able to pick up the slack, finishing with 11 points, five boards and three assists.

The Tribe will open its conference schedule when it travels to Delaware to take on the No. 24 Blue Hens Sunday. The College will need to continue its excellent defensive play if it wants to contain forward Elena Delle Donne, the nation’s top scorer averaging 30.3 points per game.

“We love to play Delaware,” Taylor said. “Our kids are excited to play them first in the league, start at the top and see what we’re made of … We’ve got a lot of talent and we’ve got kids who keep getting better every day. This team’s hungry.”

Men’s basketball: W&M / Richmond Live Blog

Women’s basketball: Thriller in Norfolk

William and Mary Tribe hit the road to take on the Spartans of Norfolk State Monday, posting a thrilling double overtime win. Junior forward Emily Correal lead the way with 21 points and a game-high 15 rebounds en route to a 79-76 final.

Following a 19-point thumping of Virginia Tech Nov. 21, the Tribe kept the momentum rolling.

Entering the game, senior guard Katherine DeHenzel led the NCAA in steals per game with 5.5. Turnovers would prove to play a deciding role in the game, as DeHenzel added two more steals.

Norfolk State started the game hot, jumping out to an early 15-5 lead in the first half. The lead would not hold, however, as the Tribe quickly stormed back to take the lead by halves end.

Turnovers doomed the Spartans early in the game, as the Tribe scored 11 points on 14 turnovers. By the end of the game, the Tribe had 16 steals to Norfolk State’s five.

Impressive teamwork also aided the Tribe’s cause, as five players had at least three points by halftime.

The second half came down to the wire, with both teams trading leads and buckets. Back from suspension, senior guard Taysha Pye hit a jumper to tie the game at 57 a piece with 19 seconds remaining in regulation.

A tough defensive stand by the Tribe pushed the game to the first overtime, where more heroics were in order. With 13.6 seconds remaining junior center Jaclyn McKenna converted a lay-up to tie the game at 67.

Once again, the onus was on the Tribe defense to hold Norfolk State and force a second overtime. And, once again, the defense prevailed.

Correal, a dominant force in the paint throughout the game, came through in a big way with a monstrous block to give the ball back to the Tribe with a two-point lead with 54.1 seconds. The Tribe ran out the clock to cap their third win of the young season.

With the third win of the season, the Tribe matched its win total from the entirety last year. Correal posted a double-double and McKenna chipped in 17 points in an all-around team effort.

Following the big win in Blacksburg, the expectation was that the College would cruise to its third win of the season against Norfolk State.

But the Spartans stayed in the game by shooting 100 percent at the free throw line. Couple that with 31 defensive rebounds and 33 percent efficiency from behind the arch and Norfolk State had found a recipe for success.

Unfortunately for the Spartans, the Tribe’s defense was in exquisite form. For all the sharp-shooting, the Spartan’s inability to hold on to the ball allowed the Tribe to stay in the game.

Sixteen steals and five blocks highlighted the defensive effort, and the defense came through twice to push the game to both overtimes.

Forty-two total rebounds helped erase the Tribe’s 25 turnovers.

With the win, the Tribe won back-to-back away games for the first time since the 2009-2010 season.

The Tribe will look to continue the streak at home on Wednesday against the Longwood. Tipoff is scheduled for 5 p.m. at Kaplan Arena in a double header with the men’s team, who tip off at 7 p.m.

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