{"id":44438,"date":"2019-03-13T14:34:52","date_gmt":"2019-03-13T19:34:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/?p=44438"},"modified":"2019-03-13T14:35:10","modified_gmt":"2019-03-13T19:35:10","slug":"home-sweet-home-for-tiger-women","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/?p=44438","title":{"rendered":"Home sweet home for Tiger women"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Diane Gasper-O\u2019Brien <\/strong>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0
University Relations and Marketing <\/em>
It\u2019s a bit of de ja vu for Paige Lunsford this week.

As a junior, Lunsford was a starter on the Fort Hays State University women\u2019s basketball team in 2015 when the Tigers earned the right to host the NCAA Division II Central Regional Championships for the first time in program history.

Now a graduate assistant coach for the Tiger women, Lunsford plans to tell the players to savor every single moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

FHSU again was selected to host a regional this year. The Tigers will take a 30-1 record into Friday’s 5 p.m. quarterfinal game vs. No. 8 seeded Pittsburg State University. A complete schedule and other tournament information can be found at fhsuathletics.com.

Playing in front of a large, vocal crowd back in 2015, the Tigers made it all the way to the regional championship game. Injuries to two major backcourt players late in the season hit FHSU hard, but the Tigers still played second-seeded Emporia State University a tough game before falling by five points in the finals.

Lunsford credits part of the Tigers\u2019 success at home \u2013 both during her playing days and now \u2013 to the huge crowd support. Fort Hays State has ranked second in the nation in attendance among NCAA Division II teams four years running.

\u201cIt\u2019s so unique what we get to experience here,\u201d said Lunsford, a Hays native and four-year starter for Hays High School. \u201cThe support we get from the community and surrounding communities is incredible.\u201d

Starting with 2012-13, the Tigers have never lost more than one game in a season at Gross Memorial Coliseum. During that time, they have amassed a staggering home record of 107-5.

In fact, FHSU\u2019s only home loss Lunsford\u2019s junior year was that regional championship game. Her senior season, the Tigers won all 15 of their home games, and that mark was surpassed this year (16-0).

Having the home court advantage is not lost on the players and coaches, Lunsford said.

\u201cThe atmosphere here is hardly like this anywhere else we play,\u201d she said. \u201cSome places, there are more Fort Hays fans than, or at least as many as, there are for the home team.\u201d

Lunsford doesn\u2019t expect that to be any different this weekend, and she is looking forward to watching her players experience it.

\u201cI didn\u2019t realize at the time back then how special it was to get to host the regional,\u201d she said. \u201cWhen you\u2019re in the moment, you\u2019re busy taking care of business at hand.\u201d

Looking back, Lunsford definitely sees the significance of that experience now and is thoroughly enjoying this year\u2019s run.

FHSU was seeded second to Southwestern Oklahoma State University in the regional rankings heading into last week\u2019s MIAA tournament in Kansas City, Mo.

The Tigers went 3-0 to win their first-ever MIAA tourney crown, but they still were unsure of what their final ranking would be. SWOSU also won its conference tournament. Both the Tigers and Bulldogs are 30-1, and SWOSU had entered conference tournament week with the slightest of edges over the Tigers in the regional rankings.

The national selection show was scheduled for 9 p.m. Sunday, but the top-seeded teams were to be notified by Twitter about 8.

The Tigers were on their way home from Kansas City about that time, and the team bus made a stop in Topeka for dinner. The coaches told the players to shut off their phones so they all could learn of their fate together.

\u201cWe had just gotten back on the bus about 8:10,\u201d Lunsford said. \u201cWe coaches looked at Twitter and saw it, and told the girls. They were so excited.\u201d

The team arrived in Hays after 11:15 p.m., and the next day, it was down to business \u2013 after a day of rest, that is.

\u201cAfter five days in Kansas City, they were tired,\u201d Lunsford said. \u201cWith this week being spring break, it gives them a chance to get some rest.\u201d

The Tigers practiced Tuesday and will do so every day leading up to Friday, \u201ctrying to keep everything as normal as possible,\u201d Lunsford said.

She thinks playing in the tough MIAA will help those five conference teams that were given regional berths. Playing at home also should help the Tigers, although Lunsford admitted that taking the court for that first regional game is a thrill like no other.

\u201cI remember walking out on the court that first game (at the 2015 regionals) and seeing the amount of people in the stands and getting chills,\u201d Lunsford said. \u201cI was so in awe that all these people would come to watch us play. I think, growing up, every kid has a dream of playing in front of that kind of crowd someday. It was amazing.\u201d

She thinks it will hit home for this year\u2019s players on Friday, somewhere about 4:45 p.m.

\u201cI think it will hit them during the starting lineup, at that moment when you have a second to look around at the crowd,\u201d Lunsford said. \u201cI get chills now, just thinking about it. I can hardly wait.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Paige Lunsford, Fort Hays State University graduate assistant women\u2019s basketball coach, in action during her junior year in 2014-15.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Diane Gasper-O\u2019Brien \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 University Relations and Marketing It\u2019s a bit of de ja vu for Paige Lunsford this week. As a… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":44440,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3398,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-44438","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-campus-news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tigermedianet.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/SMALL-Lundsford-coaching-e1552505749186.jpg?fit=500%2C403&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44438","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=44438"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44438\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44442,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44438\/revisions\/44442"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/44440"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=44438"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=44438"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=44438"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}