Bryn Athyn Women Ready To Make Most Of Conference Tourney

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- This is conference tournament week in Division III basketball, so a lot of quality teams from around the area are chasing a championship.

One of the neatest stories to keep an eye on comes out of Montgomery County, where tiny (about 300 students) Bryn Athyn College's women's basketball team will play host tonight to the College of St. Elizabeth in a North Eastern Athletic Conference first round match-up.

Bryn Athyn finished the regular season with an outstanding 20-5 record (16-4 in the NEAC).

"I think that we all had high expectations for this season with having a good senior class and really great leaders," Bryn Athyn head coach Kayla Felty tells KYW Newsradio. "We expected to definitely have the best season so far that we've had the team. But I don't know if we thought we'd get to twenty wins, so it's definitely a milestone that we're happy to have achieved. But I think that we knew we'd be in this position heading into playoffs."

Listen to the entire interview with Bryn Athyn head coach Kayla Felty:

This is just the fourth year for Bryn Athyn at the Division III level and they are still in provisional status. That means that they can't take part in the NCAA Tournament (they will achieve full status next season). So this conference tournament run will be the end of the road for the Lions, no matter what happens.

"I think that (the conference tournament) is really important for (the players)," Felty says. "Our senior class is the first class we've ever recruited here, so they've really led the way the last four years just building this program. I think the opportunity and the realistic chance of winning the championship this year with this group is something that has just driven them to have such a successful season. I think that, even though we can't make it past the championship game, I think winning a championship would really seal the deal for them for their four years here."

Felty says a big reason why her group has had such a high level of success is the play of guard Kristina Clark.

"She's a senior from Perth Amboy, New Jersey," Felty says. "She's been our leading scorer for the past four seasons and she's just having a tremendous senior campaign. She just got her 1,000 rebounds and she's been a 1,000 point scorer (since) last year. So she's really just taken the team on her shoulders."

Clark is averaging 19.9 points per game and 14.2 rebounds a game.

Bryn Athyn's game with the College of St. Elizabeth on Tuesday starts at 7:00pm.