Because of a Saturday science lab, one of the best players in Division III women's basketball will miss a chunk of Cedar Crest's home game Saturday against Philadelphia Biblical, a battle of four-win teams battling to avoid the Colonial States Athletic Conference's North Division basement.

However, this is not the standard story of student-athlete trying to balance both ends of that term, sacrificing part of the former to enjoy part of the latter. There is nothing standard whatsoever about Lizzy Sunderhaus, the first-ever junior Jostens Trophy winner who balances basketball and books seamlessly despite carrying the rigorous courseload that comes with being a biochemistry major concentrating in forensic science. Not to mention a minor in chemistry.

Perhaps this best explains why she will do a full-court sprint from her lab to the Falcons' game, play long enough to post big numbers in a game without postseason consequences, then return afterward fulfilled whether Cedar Crest is 5-15 or 4-16 late Saturday afternoon.

“I feel like my career at Cedar Crest, I feel like I helped develop the program,” Sunderhaus said. “I looked at Thomas More and other places like that. Coming in, I felt like I could do a lot of good here and get playing time. I felt like I help to further the program and build it up.”

Sunderhaus might not have posted quite the same statistics at Thomas More or a similar national power – she is among the Top 40 nationally in scoring (20.2 ppg) and rebounding (11.0 rpg) a year after all three NCAA levels with 15.6 boards per contest while producing 19.7 points per outing.

Although Cedar Crest did not offer a powerhouse basketball pedigree, it did offer an accredited opportunity to study forensic science. Which is ironic because, during her high school days at Stephen T. Badin in Hamilton, Ohio, she originally thought of venturing into law or teaching history.

“I had no intention of going into science at all,” Sunderhaus said. “I actually was doing this hard science work because I was taking AP (advanced placement) classes. I started to getting into it and liked it a lot.”

Usually, professors are oblivious to their students' extracurricular pursuits – even more so when we are talking about biochemistry majors. Not at Cedar Crest. Coach Valerie Donohue laughs when she calls Sunderhaus “a liaison” between the college's athletic and academic worlds, bridging a sometimes unbridgeable gap while proving academic and athletic success are not mutually exclusive.

That is why, this Saturday, her professors will rearrange and extend her lab's lunch hour, a concession designed that will enable Sunderhaus to enjoy one of her final collegiate basketball games.

“She does so well in the classroom and her professors really try to help her fit in everything she's do in the lab,” Donohue said. “They really try to bend over backwards to help her fit (basketball) in. … I try to help her find that balance and so do her professors. She's such a hard worker and she's accomplishing so much.”

Balancing both worlds, often while carrying 18-19 credits, is occasionally “hectic,” as Sunderhaus coyly admitted. In this final semester at Cedar Crest, however, she is indulging her love of literature by taking a Jane Austen class alongside Advanced Mendelian Genetics, DNA Sequencing and Issues in Forensic Science.

“It's been kind of difficult,” Sunderhaus said. “But I make sure I have me time.”

Sunderhaus' time on the basketball court will come to an end soon. Then it will be all about a career in the sciences, where she hopes to study human genetics – specifically Alzheimer's disease, Asperger syndrome and autism, all of which run in her family. She has already applied for an interviewed at both the University of Colorado-Denver and Oregon Health & Science University in Portland, Ore.

Although she never captured a championship Sunderhaus will graduate from Cedar Crest with no regrets, and a remarkable academic and athletic legacy.

“I've absolutely loved it here,” Sunderhaus said. “They've help me balance my academics and helped me do what I want to do.

“It really has been a great experience. I've been able to do what I've wanted to do.”

LaRoche men moving forward

With 13 months having passed since the deaths of three beloved bench bosses, we wanted to see just how far along those programs were with their respective healing processes. We will touch base with the Louisiana College women in next week's ATN, but first we stayed in the Keystone State while checking with the LaRoche men and the ladies of Saint Vincent (see below).

At LaRoche, Scott Lang, 41, passed away suddenly on Dec. 10, 2010, which helped inspire an emotional run to the Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference championship and their first-ever NCAA Division III Men's Basketball championship appearance on the freshly named Coach Scott Lang Court. A year later, Lang's former top assistant and successor Harry Jenkins switched up the Redhawks' uniforms because, as he put it, “We've tried to move away from last year.”

Easier said than done, of course, even 13 months later. Please don't misunderstand – Jenkins is trying to strike a delicate, difficult balance between remembering the Redhawks' roots under Lang without staying rooted in the past. Although there are new uniforms, there are still some of the same drills their former coach ran, some of the memories shared between the new coach and his returning players.

So far, LaRoche is behind last season's pace. This is not because of an emotional hangover, but rather having a roster with nine sophomores, three juniors and senior Mike Dixon, the reigning AMCC Defensive Player of the Year, a skewed mix of youth that has led to what Jenkins called “growing pains.”

Even so, he admitted, “We've had a good season, we're in second place in our league. We have every opportunity to repeat what we did last year, except we have (six) games we need to get zeroed in.”

A big part of LaRoche continuing its success can be credited to shifting Dixon from off the ball to floor general. A former point guard at Pittsburgh's Carrick High School, he is one of four double-digit scorers in Jenkins' starting five, averaging 11.9 points, 6.0 rebounds and 4.9 assists.

“I feel pretty much comfortable at (point guard). I love it,” Dixon said.

Said Jenkins: “We weren't sure how it would work out. But it really has worked.”

Junior forward Joel McIntosh (14.9 ppg, 5.7 rpg), sophomore forward David Jackson (10.9 ppg, 9.9 rpg) and sophomore guard Andre Flanigan (10.4 ppg, 4.6 rpg, 3.2 apg) round out LaRoche's quartet of dependable scorers, but are also instrumental in the Redhawks outrebounding opponents by nearly 12 caroms per contest (41.1-29.6).

Although LaRoche trails Medaille by two games in the AMCC standings, there is still a belief that last season could be duplicated – even without the emotional shakeup Lang's passing provided.

Dixon could barely conceal his sense of loss when asked about Lang, admitting he that, “I think about it a lot.”

However, when asked what Lang would think of how the Redhawks have rallied in the 13 months since his passing, becoming AMCC powers and national contenders, Dixon put things into perspective.

“I think he would be really proud,” he said.

Saint Vincent forging ahead

About 40 miles southeast of the Steel City, Saint Vincent College is 13 months into the healing process after venerable women's basketball coach and administrator Kristen Zawacki passed away Christmas Day 2010 – just nine months after winning her 500th game in her 27th and final season on the Bearcats' sideline.

Like LaRoche, Saint Vincent has moved on from the emotional phase of its grieving. The focus has returned to winning games, competing for a Presidents' Athletic Conference championship and another invitation to the NCAA Tournament, and not dwelling on the loss of their beloved coach.

“She wouldn't want us to continue to do that,” said coach Jimmy Petruska, who previously served as an assistant under Zawacki for four-plus seasons. “She was all about the girls and the school. She didn't want it to be about her. She just wouldn't want that attention.”

“She's definitely still on our minds and still with us,” said senior forward Brittany Sedlock, a D3hoops.com Preseason Second Team All-American and 2010-11 Fourth Team All-American. “We never forget; she's always there. We're trying to play for her, win for her, and not let the loss of her get us down.”

Last season, the Bearcats lost in the PAC title game against then-No. 1 Thomas More and bowed out in the first round of the NCAA's against Greensboro, but finished 24-5 and produced a memorable and successful season in Zawacki's honor.

This season, there has been no emotional hangover. Though they are receiving only two votes in our Top 25, the Bearcats are 15-3 and again contending for the PAC championship and, at the very least, an at-large NCAA invitation. They own a road victory at Messiah and have forged a tie with Thomas More atop the conference leaderboard, although they own the tiebreaker for the moment courtesy of a 68-65 home victory Jan. 14.

“It's been a great season thus far,” Zawacki said.

Thus far, Sedlock (16.3 points per game, 10.3 rebounds) has looked like an All-American, with junior forward Devin McGrath (11.1 points, 6.9 rebounds, 3.4 assists, 3.2 steals) emerging as an All-Region candidate. However, the backcourt has been Saint Vincent's most pleasant surprise where senior Emily Fenton (11.3 ppg) ahs been joined by freshman Elle Collins (9.4 ppg), who has proven herself as a steady floor general midway through her rookie year.

Because of a Saturday science lab, one of the best players in Division III women's basketball will miss a chunk of Cedar Crest's home game Saturday against Philadelphia Biblical, a battle of four-win teams battling to avoid the Colonial States Athletic Conference's North Division basement.

However, this is not the standard story of student-athlete trying to balance both ends of that term, sacrificing part of the former to enjoy part of the latter. There is nothing standard whatsoever about Lizzy Sunderhaus, the first-ever junior Jostens Trophy winner who balances basketball and books seamlessly despite carrying the rigorous courseload that comes with being a biochemistry major concentrating in forensic science. Not to mention a minor in chemistry.

Perhaps this best explains why she will do a full-court sprint from her lab to the Falcons' game, play long enough to post big numbers in a game without postseason consequences, then return afterward fulfilled whether Cedar Crest is 5-15 or 4-16 late Saturday afternoon.

“I feel like my career at Cedar Crest, I feel like I helped develop the program,” Sunderhaus said. “I looked at Thomas More and other places like that. Coming in, I felt like I could do a lot of good here and get playing time. I felt like I help to further the program and build it up.”

Sunderhaus might not have posted quite the same statistics at Thomas More or a similar national power – she is among the Top 40 nationally in scoring (20.2 ppg) and rebounding (11.0 rpg) a year after all three NCAA levels with 15.6 boards per contest while producing 19.7 points per outing.

Although Cedar Crest did not offer a powerhouse basketball pedigree, it did offer an accredited opportunity to study forensic science. Which is ironic because, during her high school days at Stephen T. Badin in Hamilton, Ohio, she originally thought of venturing into law or teaching history.

“I had no intention of going into science at all,” Sunderhaus said. “I actually was doing this hard science work because I was taking AP (advanced placement) classes. I started to getting into it and liked it a lot.”

Usually, professors are oblivious to their students' extracurricular pursuits – even more so when we are talking about biochemistry majors. Not at Cedar Crest. Coach Valerie Donohue laughs when she calls Sunderhaus “a liaison” between the college's athletic and academic worlds, bridging a sometimes unbridgeable gap while proving academic and athletic success are not mutually exclusive.

That is why, this Saturday, her professors will rearrange and extend her lab's lunch hour, a concession designed that will enable Sunderhaus to enjoy one of her final collegiate basketball games.

“She does so well in the classroom and her professors really try to help her fit in everything she's do in the lab,” Donohue said. “They really try to bend over backwards to help her fit (basketball) in. … I try to help her find that balance and so do her professors. She's such a hard worker and she's accomplishing so much.”

Balancing both worlds, often while carrying 18-19 credits, is occasionally “hectic,” as Sunderhaus coyly admitted. In this final semester at Cedar Crest, however, she is indulging her love of literature by taking a Jane Austen class alongside Advanced Mendelian Genetics, DNA Sequencing and Issues in Forensic Science.

“It's been kind of difficult,” Sunderhaus said. “But I make sure I have me time.”

Sunderhaus' time on the basketball court will come to an end soon. Then it will be all about a career in the sciences, where she hopes to study human genetics – specifically Alzheimer's disease, Asperger syndrome and autism, all of which run in her family. She has already applied for an interviewed at both the University of Colorado-Denver and Oregon Health & Science University in Portland, Ore.

Although she never captured a championship Sunderhaus will graduate from Cedar Crest with no regrets, and a remarkable academic and athletic legacy.

“I've absolutely loved it here,” Sunderhaus said. “They've help me balance my academics and helped me do what I want to do.

“It really has been a great experience. I've been able to do what I've wanted to do.”

LaRoche men moving forward

With 13 months having passed since the deaths of three beloved bench bosses, we wanted to see just how far along those programs were with their respective healing processes. We will touch base with the Louisiana College women in next week's ATN, but first we stayed in the Keystone State while checking with the LaRoche men and the ladies of Saint Vincent (see below).

At LaRoche, Scott Lang, 41, passed away suddenly on Dec. 10, 2010, which helped inspire an emotional run to the Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference championship and their first-ever NCAA Division III Men's Basketball championship appearance on the freshly named Coach Scott Lang Court. A year later, Lang's former top assistant and successor Harry Jenkins switched up the Redhawks' uniforms because, as he put it, “We've tried to move away from last year.”

Easier said than done, of course, even 13 months later. Please don't misunderstand – Jenkins is trying to strike a delicate, difficult balance between remembering the Redhawks' roots under Lang without staying rooted in the past. Although there are new uniforms, there are still some of the same drills their former coach ran, some of the memories shared between the new coach and his returning players.

So far, LaRoche is behind last season's pace. This is not because of an emotional hangover, but rather having a roster with nine sophomores, three juniors and senior Mike Dixon, the reigning AMCC Defensive Player of the Year, a skewed mix of youth that has led to what Jenkins called “growing pains.”

Even so, he admitted, “We've had a good season, we're in second place in our league. We have every opportunity to repeat what we did last year, except we have (six) games we need to get zeroed in.”

A big part of LaRoche continuing its success can be credited to shifting Dixon from off the ball to floor general. A former point guard at Pittsburgh's Carrick High School, he is one of four double-digit scorers in Jenkins' starting five, averaging 11.9 points, 6.0 rebounds and 4.9 assists.

“I feel pretty much comfortable at (point guard). I love it,” Dixon said.

Said Jenkins: “We weren't sure how it would work out. But it really has worked.”

Junior forward Joel McIntosh (14.9 ppg, 5.7 rpg), sophomore forward David Jackson (10.9 ppg, 9.9 rpg) and sophomore guard Andre Flanigan (10.4 ppg, 4.6 rpg, 3.2 apg) round out LaRoche's quartet of dependable scorers, but are also instrumental in the Redhawks outrebounding opponents by nearly 12 caroms per contest (41.1-29.6).

Although LaRoche trails Medaille by two games in the AMCC standings, there is still a belief that last season could be duplicated – even without the emotional shakeup Lang's passing provided.

Dixon could barely conceal his sense of loss when asked about Lang, admitting he that, “I think about it a lot.”

However, when asked what Lang would think of how the Redhawks have rallied in the 13 months since his passing, becoming AMCC powers and national contenders, Dixon put things into perspective.

“I think he would be really proud,” he said.

Saint Vincent forging ahead

About 40 miles southeast of the Steel City, Saint Vincent College is 13 months into the healing process after venerable women's basketball coach and administrator Kristen Zawacki passed away Christmas Day 2010 – just nine months after winning her 500th game in her 27th and final season on the Bearcats' sideline.

Like LaRoche, Saint Vincent has moved on from the emotional phase of its grieving. The focus has returned to winning games, competing for a Presidents' Athletic Conference championship and another invitation to the NCAA Tournament, and not dwelling on the loss of their beloved coach.

“She wouldn't want us to continue to do that,” said coach Jimmy Petruska, who previously served as an assistant under Zawacki for four-plus seasons. “She was all about the girls and the school. She didn't want it to be about her. She just wouldn't want that attention.”

“She's definitely still on our minds and still with us,” said senior forward Brittany Sedlock, a D3hoops.com Preseason Second Team All-American and 2010-11 Fourth Team All-American. “We never forget; she's always there. We're trying to play for her, win for her, and not let the loss of her get us down.”

Last season, the Bearcats lost in the PAC title game against then-No. 1 Thomas More and bowed out in the first round of the NCAA's against Greensboro, but finished 24-5 and produced a memorable and successful season in Zawacki's honor.

This season, there has been no emotional hangover. Though they are receiving only two votes in our Top 25, the Bearcats are 15-3 and again contending for the PAC championship and, at the very least, an at-large NCAA invitation. They own a road victory at Messiah and have forged a tie with Thomas More atop the conference leaderboard, although they own the tiebreaker for the moment courtesy of a 68-65 home victory Jan. 14.

“It's been a great season thus far,” Zawacki said.

Thus far, Sedlock (16.3 points per game, 10.3 rebounds) has looked like an All-American, with junior forward Devin McGrath (11.1 points, 6.9 rebounds, 3.4 assists, 3.2 steals) emerging as an All-Region candidate. However, the backcourt has been Saint Vincent's most pleasant surprise where senior Emily Fenton (11.3 ppg) ahs been joined by freshman Elle Collins (9.4 ppg), who has proven herself as a steady floor general midway through her rookie year.

“We don't run a very complex offensive system, but there is a lot to know,” Petruska said. “I didn't anticipate her start every game and producing how she's produced.”

Just as no one could have anticipated how Saint Vincent – or any program, for that matter – would react after losing its coach. However, the Bearcats have gone about business as usual, although the memories still cause Petruska to tear up occasionally.

“We used the loss as motivation, to play for her and win for her,” Sedlock said. “It just made us come together as a team. We want to get that PAC championship for her.”

“We don't run a very complex offensive system, but there is a lot to know,” Petruska said. “I didn't anticipate her start every game and producing how she's produced.”

Just as no one could have anticipated how Saint Vincent – or any program, for that matter – would react after losing its coach. However, the Bearcats have gone about business as usual, although the memories still cause Petruska to tear up occasionally.

“We used the loss as motivation, to play for her and win for her,” Sedlock said. “It just made us come together as a team. We want to get that PAC championship for her.”