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POUGHKEEPSIE, New York – In 2004, The Marist College women's basketball team won its first-ever Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Tournament with a 76-74 win over Canisius. The Red Foxes, 20-10 prior to the NCAA Tournament, earned their second 20-win season in program history and made their first-ever NCAA Tournament appearance.

Stephanie Del Preore hit a pair of free throws with :18 seconds to play to put up the Red Foxes 75-72. Following a Canisius lay-up, Nina Vecchio hit her first free throw, with :06 to play, and a last second jumper by Becky Zak fell short to seal the victory for the Red Foxes.

Del Preore was named the Tournament Most Valuable Player, as she scored 30 points and had a double-double with 16 rebounds in the game. Over the course of the three games in tournament play Del Preore averaged 23 points and 9.7 rebounds.

The team was 6-6 overall and 2-1 in the MAAC when Alisa Kresge made her first career start on Jan. 11. The Red Foxes beat Rider 65-44 that day, and went 15-5 the rest of the way. On the final day of the regular season, Marist defeated Iona to win a share of the MAAC regular-season title for the first time.

As back-and-forth and close as the MAAC championship game was with Canisius, the Red Foxes never trailed. It was the first of four meetings between Marist and the Golden Griffins that were decided by a total of eight points.

Although Canisius would go on to win in 2005, the Red Foxes historic streak started the year after, winning nine straight titles from 2006-14.

Marist went on to play their first-ever NCAA Tournament game at Wells Fargo Arena in Tempe, AZ. They fell to the number three seed Oklahoma Sooners in the Midwest Region, 58-45. The Sooners (24-8) opened a game-high 20-point lead (47-27) with 9:22 remaining in the game, appearing to have put the Red Foxes away, but that was not the case. Marist scored the next 15 points in the game bringing the score to 47-42 with 4:06 to play in the game before Oklahoma pulled away.

That 2003-04 season was head coach Brian Giorgis' second year as head coach. Prior to that season, the last time the women's basketball program had a winning season was 1992-93.

Three members of the 2004 Red Foxes starting lineup are current Division I head coaches - Kresge (Vermont), Del Preore (LIU) and Maureen Magarity (UNH).
 

Past Marist Mondays

Week One: 2008 Men's Tennis | Week Two: 2014 Women's Swimming & Diving | Week Three: 2015 Men's Lacrosse | Week Four: 1998 Women's Cross Country | Week Five: 2004 Men's Soccer | Week Six: 2013 Women's Tennis | Week Seven: 2002 Men's Rowing | Week Eight: 2011 Women's Soccer | Week Nine: 2013 Football | Week 10: 2008 Women's Lacrosse | Week 11: 2002 Baseball | Week 12: 2008 Water Polo | Week 13: 1987 Men's Basketball | Week 14: 2016 Softball | Week 15: 1996 Men's Swimming & Diving