The North Wind

Issue date: 4/12/07 Section: Sports

Media Credit: NMU Sports Information Maria Kasza gets down in a defensive stance while still in a Wildcat uniform

Senior guard Maria Kasza will play her final collegiate season in the U.P., just as she has her first three, only she will be donning the black-and-yellow, rather than the green-and-gold. Kasza announced her decision to transfer to rival Michigan Tech, where she will sit out one season due to NCAA rules, and finish her career a Husky.

"I went up to Tech for a short unofficial visit a few weeks after spring break. After seeing the campus, meeting with an academic advisor, checking out the facilities and having a meeting with Coach Barnes and Coach Cameron, I verbally committed 15 minutes into my drive back to Marquette," Kasza said.

Kasza came here as a highly -heralded freshman under former coach Mike Geary and averaged 10.6 points and made more than two three-pointers a game during her first season. Her sophomore season was more of the same under new head coach Troy Mattson, as Kasza started all 25 games, averaged 11.6 points and ranked third in the GLIAC in three-point field goals made. This season however, Mattson admitted that Kasza's strengths as a player differed from the team philosophy as a whole, and she started just eight games and scored a career-low 6.9 points per contest.

"There wasn't really conflict between Maria and I, but my style is different than what her specialty is, which is shooting," Mattson said. "My idea for us to get better is to be better at defensive rebounding, which can create things on the offensive end and it doesn't really fit into her style of play."

Kasza said that NMU was the "right fit" when she first signed on with the program and since then things have changed.

"All along the recruiting process you're told not to sign for a coach, but as a player it is a large part of the choice you make, for they'll greatly impact your next four to five years," she said. "When coaches change, a new set of expectations, disciplines and vision of a team is brought in. In this case for me I didn't mesh into that new direction of the program and it was no longer "the right fit." It only made sense to explore other options and try to make something out of my senior year of eligibility."

Kasza said the fondest memory she will take from Northern is from her freshman season when she and fellow freshman Allison Caroll combined for 40 points and 20 rebounds and the team knocked off the top-seeded Lake Superior State Lakers in the GLIAC tournament.

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