As the North Star Conference Championship Tournament draws closer, count on senior leadership to be the backbone of the Huskies’ game plan.

At the same time, count on that leadership to be the strength, the confidence and the example to be followed in the future for members of the NIU women’s basketball team.

Senior-standouts Lisa Foss, Denise Dove and Toby Meeks have built quite a name for themselves on the court, but now is when their role as leaders, both on and off the court, is crucial.

“The seniors will be the catalyst at the North Star tournament,” head coach Jane Albright said. “They’re the extra shot of adrenaline we need to get the team going.”

“At the very beginning of the year, I told the team to follow our three seniors because they are the ones who know what I expect from them,” Albright added. “I basically told the team to mirror their examples.”

Those examples are phenomenal in terms of talent. All three seniors demonstrate the kind of basketball finesse that coaches dream of, or dread, depending on which end they are coaching on.

But Denise Dove sees her leadership more as a form of role modeling.

“I think my leadership is by example off the court. I don’t tell the team how to act. I just give them something to follow,” Dove said. “On the court my leadership is verbal. I’m a director on court but I stay calm. As point guard the team looks to me, so if I stay calm and in control, they are calm and in control.”

Dove, Foss and Meeks are given a hand in senior leadership from teammate and fellow senior Denise Lipnisky, who earned a scholarship for the 1990-91 season after three years as a walk-on.

“I’m so proud of them (the seniors) and what they have done,” Albright said. “I think it is just outstanding that we’re 22-5 and a large reason for that record comes from our seniors.”

Together these seniors have made a big job a little easier. Now the NSC tournament awaits as a possible back-to-back tournament championship looms ahead of them … this is it.

“We’re going to be the team to beat, be it Green-Bay, Valparaiso, DePaul, or UIC. They’re all going to have it out for us,” Dove said. “But we’re ready for the challenge.”