The player behind the mask is tough, smart, versatile and skilled. The player behind the mask is a "new-age" player for Division III who can't be pigeon-holed into a position because of those attributes. The player behind the mask is NYU's star sophomore forward, Jessica McEntee.

McEntee suffered a broken nose and deviated septum in a January game against Rochester but has played in the last 17 games with that mask and will be doing the same in Springfield. McEntee played the entire 2005-06 season ill but didn't miss a practice or game, even after learning she was sick at midseason, so the broken nose certainly wasn't going to keep her out.

"Once the game starts, I don't even realize the mask is on," McEntee said.

She won UAA player of the year honors, going from someone who was averaging 6.6 points and 6.5 rebounds while playing with mononucleosis a year ago to 17.3 and 12.7 this season. She shot 47% from the field, 81% from the free throw line (averaging nine attempts a game), and made 11 of 22 3-pointers, taking enough to make defenses aware that she's a threat both inside and outside

From freshman to sophomore, it's like a huge weight is lifted off your shoulders," said McEntee, who starred at Archbishop Molloy High, a well-known basketball power in New York City. "Nothing is new. Everybody is clicking with you."

That "clicking" lifted the team. NYU's record improved from 18-8 to 27-2, and their 12-2 mark tied them with Washington University for best in the UAA. One opposing coach called her "a beast" and said that was the ultimate compliment they could bestow upon a player. A second said that McEntee could have a bad game (like the 3-for-15 shooting in the Sweet 16 against Simposn) and still carry the team. Another noted that McEntee is good enough that she could have held her own at a mid-level school in Division I's Big East. That's pretty high praise for someone who's only in her second collegiate season.

"She's a great competitor, really skilled, very smart, and very coachable," said NYU women's head coach Janice Quinn. "Fans love watching her play. She's one of the smartest players I've ever coached. I can tell her something that she can process and apply to situations that we haven't even talked about yet. That's different from being skilled, being an athlete or being strong. That's a rare kind of player that can do that."

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It's a rare kind of player that can string together the kind of second half that McEntee had in the Elite Eight victory over Kean. In the final 20 minutes of the game, she scored 23 points and grabbed 12 rebounds, and scored 10 straight points in a four-and-a-half minute stretch to turn a two-point deficit into a five-point lead. McEntee described those key moments as "really crazy, full of emotion, and hard to believe." She also made sure to note "We deserved to win."

In the four NCAA Tournament games, McEntee has raised her level of play to a point where you can't imagine it possible for her to do much more. The 28 points and 16 rebounds against Kean upped her NCAA averages over the last four games to 24 points and 14 rebounds. But those statistics are secondary in the mind of her head coach.

"Jess is truly of the genre of a Michael Jordan, where winning is so much more important than the individual accomplishment, or a Derek Jeter who just wants to keep driving the team forward," Quinn said. "That's the most awesome thing about her."