BVU Senior Savors Signature Victory
Leading the Beavers while student-teaching keeps Cassy Miller busy, and productive, in her final semester at BVU.
Members of the Buena Vista University women’s basketball team erupted in joy when coaches David Wells and Alison Shearer entered the locker room following the squad’s 69-65 victory over Luther College on Saturday night.
Head Coach Wells, in his second year piloting the program, clenched his fists and shouted, a mix of jubilation and relief, as a 19-game league losing streak ended with his initial conference victory. He zeroed in on senior Cassy Miller, the team’s only four-year player, the only member of the team sitting during the spontaneous celebration. He gave her a hug.
“This is for you,” he said as tears formed in Miller’s eyes. He looked at the rest of the team while stepping back to point at Miller. “You had her back. You had her back.”
Miller led the team in scoring on this night, tallying a career-high 17 points to complement four rebounds, three assists, and four steals, the most important theft occurring with two seconds left, a play that sealed the triumph. The soft-spoken elementary education major from Hampton glanced at her coaches, then her teammates, then smiled, a tad embarrassed by the attention.
“The girls on the bench kept encouraging us. Our bench wouldn’t let us even think about not winning that game.”
Cassy Miller
“It was an emotional scene,” she says. “It had been a long time.”
Miller’s athletic arc is dotted with all sorts of victories and honors. As a prep at Hampton-Dumont High School, she competed in four sports: volleyball, basketball, softball, and track and field. Her basketball team reached three Regional finals, coming up short in all three, one game shy of the vaunted state tournament.
At BVU, Miller played softball and basketball as a freshman. She then put her cleats on the shelf and focused on basketball, working on her shot and her conditioning for the long winter grind.
The victories for the Beavers haven’t been as plentiful as she would have liked. The low point was a tough 1-24 junior campaign, a season in which BVU showed improvement, but couldn’t quite get over the proverbial hump in American Rivers Conference games.
That changed on Saturday, BVU’s third game in a season shortened by COVID-19.
“I knew we had a really good chance against Luther,” Miller says. “It was Luther’s first game because of COVID-19 issues. We also knew we could run on them. We were confident we had a chance.”
BVU fell behind by 10 points in the second quarter, then charged to take a six-point lead after three quarters. The Norse battled back to gain a two-point cushion in the closing minutes. The Beavers, though, kept applying pressure. Miller and teammates Olivia Larsen, Megan Morenz, Vanessa Hamlett, Kayley Dresback, Christina Schauer, Mya Guzinski, and Jayleen Cole all contributed key steals, rebounds, and stops, especially in the closing minutes, a time in which the Beavers converted seven free throws to clinch the victory in the final 1:01.
“Coach took a timeout in the last minute and told us we’d be just fine,” Miller remembers. “The girls on the bench kept encouraging us. Our bench wouldn’t let us even think about not winning that game.”
Miller says she was sure of the victory after Schauer, a member of the team for three seasons, calmly stepped to the free throw line and sank both charity tosses with 15 seconds remaining for a 67-63 advantage. While just a junior athletically, Schauer will join Miller in being feted on Senior Day this Saturday prior to a 5:30 p.m. tip-off versus Coe College. Schauer, a political science and business double-major from Middleton, Wisc., plans to graduate in May, then enter law school.
When Saturday’s game against Luther came to a close, the scoreboard showed BVU on top, moving to 1-2 on the season, 1-2 in league action. Miller celebrated quietly, taken aback by the attention. She then dined with her parents at Plaza Mexico, her choice for a victory meal.
On Sunday, Miller turned her attention to homework, focusing on lesson plans she created for the eighth-grade classroom she directs as a student-teacher at Storm Lake Middle School. It’s a busy semester for a senior who will soon interview for job openings.
“Professors in BVU’s School of Education do a great job of getting us into the classrooms in and around Storm Lake early,” says Miller, whose older brother, Cole Miller, is a BVU graduate who teaches English in their hometown. “I spent part of the second semester my freshman year in a classroom at Newell-Fonda. Getting into classes like that has been very helpful.”
Time management has been a key. It’s not uncommon for Miller and her teammates to study on the bus or in an opponent’s gym following a game.
Miller’s commitment shows in a 3.838 grade-point average, part of a women’s basketball team that topped all NCAA divisions for its cumulative 3.865 GPA one year ago. That accomplishment remains a highlight in her experience, as do some dramatic victories (like Saturday), and the fact she’s been able to travel and play with the Beavers in places like Las Vegas, Nev.; Costa Rica, Washington, California, and throughout the Midwest.
Simply growing closer to teammates is the greatest memory she’ll take from her time at BVU.
“My favorite part about BVU has been being part of the basketball team and making bonds with teammates every year, from my freshman season to now,” she says. “That’s what I’m going to miss most.”