OLEAN, N.Y. - St. Bonaventure senior guard Jessica Jenkins recently became the A-10 conference's all-time leader in 3-pointers.
However, on the night she was honored for the achievement in front of her home fans, the Bonnies leading scorer could barely crack a smile. "It's not that big of a deal to me right now, I'm sure it will be later, but we're just focused on the ultimate goal," said Jenkins.
That ultimate goal is to reach the NCAA tournament for the first time in program history. The Bonnies are well on their way. At 20-2, St. Bonaventure is off to the best start in team history. They currently lead the A-10 conference with a perfect 7-0 record and are also undefeated on the road this season.
"I don't know if anybody expected this at the beginning of the year," said Jenkins. The Bonnies success did not happen overnight, this is their fourth straight 20-win season.
Jenkins, Megan Van Tatenhove, Armelia Horton and Jennie Ashton make up a senior class that has won 87 games, the most by one-class in school history.
"They just love to compete and obviously everyone loves to win. Fortunately we have some kids talented to do something about it," said Bonaventure head coach Jim Crowley. "People who never even thought about Bonaventure women's basketball are taking notice and it's because of the time and work and dedication that these kids have put in."
St. Bonaventure has played in the postseason before, reaching the W-NIT in each of the last three seasons. Now they believe they are ready to take the next step. "Normally at the beginning of the season we have a list of a lot of goals and this year that was the only goal on the list, to get to the NCAA tournament," said Jenkins.
Despite all the Bonnies success, they still have not received a lot of national attention. They received 42 points in the latest AP poll, which left them two spots short of the top 25. Cracking into the rankings would be a first for the program.
Another potential milestone in a record setting season for St. Bonaventure.