Just weeks into the 2024-25 season, before the Bethel University Royals women’s basketball team even played a game, captains Rosie Penke and Colette “Coco” Duininck called a players-only meeting.
That October day, the team of 17 met in the film room, sandwiched among Bethel’s sports locker rooms on the second floor of the Robertson Center. Meetings of this type typically involved one player leading while the rest sat passively by. But this time, to come up with goals for the season, everyone’s input was needed. After a quiet start, every player got involved. Even the freshmen and fifth-year transfer had things to say.
“[In the meeting] you could tell everybody wanted and knew that this team could be successful,” Duininck said.
The Royals only lost one player from the 2023-24 season. All their starters returned, and they improved their roster with the addition of four freshmen and fifth-year transfer Lydia Hay from their Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) rival – the College of St. Benedict’s.
Observers outside the team might have had low expectations after a middling 15-11 record last season that saw the Royals get bounced in the first round of the conference playoffs. But the players knew what they could do this season.
Even as the list of goals grew, one stood out among the rest.
Win the MIAC and play in the NCAA tournament.
Now it’s February, the regular season ending with a 78-66 win against St. Benedict’s Saturday, and that goal is alive more than ever. With the win, Bethel finished the regular season 21-4, its first 20-win season since 2019-20.
The Royals also claimed their third MIAC regular season title, sharing it with Gustavus Adolphus College. Both teams have identical conference records.
For head coach Jon “Herbie” Herbrechtsmeyer, it’s the payoff of the struggle of last season.
“The championship that we’re on the cusp of winning really was won a year ago,” Herbrechtsmeyer said.
Building and developing a team: 2023-24
Duininck and Penke, sophomores at the time, both started all 26 games last year, but Herbrechtsmeyer said the beginning of the season was a struggle for them to adapt to their new roles. Neither thinks of herself as a shot-creator, so those roles were found in defense and passing.
Three freshmen — Emily Erickson, Cally Peterson and Macey Littlefield — all saw valuable minutes. Erickson started 24 games, and Peterson and Littlefield each averaged double digits in minutes in more than 20 games. But they were freshmen, and the cohesion of the team wasn’t fully developed.
Junior Elly Schmitz, in her first full season after transferring from the University of Sioux Falls, dealt with transitioning from NCAA Division II basketball to Division III while averaging 13.6 points per game.
The only starter with a full season of wear on her shoes was senior Anna Garfield. “Garfy” averaged 13.8 points per game in 2023-24 and 9.9 the season before that.
In spite of those growing pains, the team won 15 games and earned the fourth seed in the MIAC playoffs but fell to fifth-seeded St. Benedict’s 72-69 in the quarterfinals.
Things were still promising. Four of the Royals starters were returning, but Garfield graduated and planned to move on with a job.
“I was honestly ready to close the chapter,” Garfield said. “I love basketball. I love Bethel…but I was like, ‘Yep, four years, I’m good.’”
Garfield, a computer science major, found a job in medical device sales late that summer. Soon after, Herbrechtsmeyer texted her. Bethel’s graduate school registration was closing soon and he wanted to give her one last chance to apply and come back for her fifth year of eligibility.
Garfield applied “just in case” and got accepted. After discussing with friends and family she decided to return.
“I knew we could be good,” Garfield said. “That’d just be really fun to be a part of and just to be around the girls again for another year.”
So the Royals had their starting five back, and with a full year of experience playing together, they hoped to compete at a higher level than the year before.
But they had one more addition coming. Hay, who scored 11 points for the Bennies in Bethel’s playoff loss, graduated from St. Benedict’s. She wanted to use her fifth-year of eligibility, but St. Benedict’s lacked any graduate programs Hay was interested in.
Herbrechtsemeyer recruited Hay in her high school playing days, and, when Hay transferred out of Division II University of Minnesota-Moorhead after her freshman year, Bethel and St. Benedict’s were her top two choices. She opted for St. Benedict’s.
But Herbrechtsmeyer still had some pull. Bethel assistant coach Rachel Ranke and Hay are cousins. Paired with a more preferable graduate program, Hay transferred and joined the team.
“That’s really the piece that we were going to be really good,” Herbrechtsmeyer said.
Suddenly the Royals had six starters with only five spots for them. Hay, with her experience and slight defensive edge, according to Herbrechtsemeyer, took Erickson’s spot in the starting lineup. This season, Erickson is averaging 11 points per game off the bench, up from 8.5 when she started 24 games.
‘You can’t really shut down one player on our team’: 2024-25
Depth and community are the two keys Duininck and Penke said contributed to this season’s success.
The Royals regular rotation consists of nine players, at times ten. Starters Penke, Duininck, Schmitz, Hay and Garfield set the tone for the game while Erickson, Peterson, Littlefield and junior Alli Born are all liable to put up double digits off the bench if opponents take a break against them. Freshman Kenzie Lundeen has played in 23 games, and has seen double digits in minutes in six of those games.
“Our offense is hard to scout,” Garfield said. “Because at any night, anyone in our rotation can drop double digits.”
Between those nine regulars, there have been 72 double-digit scoring performances this season.
“I’ve never had a team where there was that much explosiveness up and down the lineup,” Herbrechtsmeyer said.
Herbrechtsmeyer admired the diversity in skills throughout the team, as well. When one starter goes to the bench, the talent on the floor doesn’t drop off. Rather, the team becomes “completely different.”
“You can’t really shut down one player on our team,” Duininck said.
Penke believes her value comes from her defense and her hustle, not to mention the leadership she brings as a captain.
“[Rosie’s] our glue piece,” Herbrechtsmeyer said. “She doesn’t get any of the headlines, but… she’s a captain because she walks the talk, and she exemplifies everything that we want a Bethel women’s basketball player to be.”
Duininck’s hustle is also what got her the job as captain. She leads the team in assists, but otherwise typically remains quiet on the scoresheet. However, her defense has proven invaluable to her teammates. Before a game against St. Catherine’s University, Duininck made a proclamation.
“Nobody likes Coco guarding her,” Penke said. “So before that game [she was] like, ‘I’m gonna be annoying today.’”
Duininck does this to opposing point guards regularly. When she forces the other team to burn several seconds just bringing the ball past halfcourt, it gives the Royals a better opportunity to force poor decisions. It’s this style of suffocating defense that the Royals as a whole have rooted their identity in.
“Our goal,” Penke said. “Is to be so annoying on defense where they can’t even hold the ball without feeling a little bit panicked.”
Perhaps no game exemplified this team’s expectations than the Jan. 18 matchup against the Gustavus Adolphus College Gusties. The team won four straight conference games to open 2025, including a 77-47 win versus Carleton College Jan. 15 in which Garfield scored her 1,000th career point.
Gustavus, ranked sixth nationally at the time, had yet to lose a game all season. Bethel came in undefeated in conference but was still an underdog to the powerhouse Gusties.
However, from the jump, something was different. Schmitz won the tip for the Royals and Duininck hit a three right away. Garfield noted a stronger energy from the bench and, with a packed house surrounding the court, the Royals forced a shot clock violation on Gustavus’ opening possession.
But there was no stoppage of play. Bethel’s bench and the crowd behind it was so loud, no one heard the buzzer, and the Royals took the ball on a fast break, capitalizing on free throws by Hay to expand the lead. Gustavus never led in the Royals’ 72-58 victory.
“When we went to Gustavus and won,” Herbrechtsmeyer said, “You could see our kids realize those goals that they hoped for suddenly became [reality]. That’s not a pipe dream.”
With this realization came a new confidence, but Herbrechtsmeyer differentiated it from a negative cockiness. This team possessed a “swagger without arrogance.”
They carried that mentality with them during a 10-game win streak from Jan. 4 to Feb. 8., when they lost at home to Gustavus. Neither team has lost since, and the MIAC remains tied at the top.
The team expects to see Gustavus again in the playoffs, and they hope to replicate the same effort from their first matchup. Since both teams were undefeated, the Royals felt they had nothing to lose and went on the attack. In the second matchup, they became more passive and rather “hoped they wouldn’t lose.”
“So now every time we play, one of us will be like, ‘Okay, we’re going to take this win from them,’” Penke said. “We’re not just gonna be like, ‘Oh, I hope they lose.’”
‘Bring the cheese’
With such extended experience with each other, the Royals have developed a strong community. Other than the freshmen and Hay, each player has been together for nearly two full seasons. The team has plenty of inside jokes, including jokingly encouraging freshman Ella Brandt to practice her words of affirmation.
The team shares laughs constantly at practice and on the bench. They celebrate every point together. It all centers around consistently “hyping each other up.”
“I was telling Cally [Peterson] the other day,” Penke said. “I was like, ‘There’s no way other teams in the MIAC are funnier than we are.’”
Assistant coach Scott “Lau” Lauinger often encourages the players to “bring the cheese.” Essentially, be as dramatic and smiley as possible. When a player falls to the ground after scoring an and-one, the other four players scream with excitement and rush to help her up. The bench jumps and shouts. Everyone laughs.
While some might see this as a distraction, the team remains productive during practices. Even following the feel-good win at Gustavus, Duininck noticed how tuned in each player was at practice the following Monday.
While Bethel shared its regular season title with Gustavus, the top seed in the MIAC playoffs could not be shared. Since both teams hold identical conference records, and each has one loss – to each other – their opponent win percentages are identical, as well. That means the third tie breaker – a coin flip – determines who will host the playoff championship, should they make it that far.
The Royals won the coin flip, earning them the number one seed, a quarterfinals bye and will host the lowest-seeded team to advance out of the quarterfinals. Bethel’s first home playoff game will be Thursday at 7 p.m.
With a win Thursday, the Royals will advance to the MIAC championship for the first time since 2020, when they won their first playoff title in program history. Winning the tournament would clinch an automatic berth to the NCAA playoffs, but even if Bethel loses in the playoffs, its National Power Index (NPI) rating will likely be high enough to secure it an at-large bid into the NCAA playoff field.
The late February practices can drag, but it’s the community the Royals have built that keeps the captains coming back. They still have those early-season goals to catch. If all goes according to plan, Penke and Duininck intend to still be playing in the NCAA tournament during Bethel’s spring break. But they look forward to it.
“The season can get really long,” Duininck said. “But the girls make it worth it and easy to come every single day. I don’t want to be done because I’m having so much fun.”
