"There's nothing quite like the first," former women's basketball head coach Linda Robinson said when discussing the 1986-87
Appalachian State team, who
won the program's first-ever
Southern Conference Tournament title and a then-program record 24 wins. That first tournament championship started a stellar run of five straight seasons
in which App captured a conference championship, tournament or regular season.
To turn around a program that only won six games the season before her arrival in 1984-85, Robinson knew she had to bring in a special crop of talent in her first recruiting class, and did so signing two gems in Valorie Whiteside and Jane Dalton. Robinson, the
freshman duo and returning leading scorer Karen Robinson helped guide the Mountaineers to a 10-win improvement and a 16-12 mark in the trio's first season together. It was the most wins for the program since the 1975-76 season en route to being named the most improved team in the country by the NCAA.
"We were very fortunate to have an unbelievably good recruiting year my first season," Robinson
said. "We garnered two of the top players the SoCon had ever seen, and really two of the top players that played in the conference at key positions. To be able to get that caliber of freshmen was huge."
Following a second consecutive 16-12 record and a SoCon Tournament victory in the 1985-86 campaign, App returned a core of five starters that included three App State Hall of Famers in Whiteside, Dalton, Beth Laney. With those pieces in place, Robinson and the Mountaineers had confidence that '86-87 could be a special season.
"We had maturity, confidence and some momentum turning things around, and we knew we could vie for Southern Conference championships and compete against our opponents."
Appalachian certainly showed its confidence on the court during the season with 18 of its wins by double digits and 10 of the victories coming by 20 or more points.
Following a loss to Oklahoma State that gave App a 6-3 start in the first nine games of the season, the Mountaineers reeled off a 12-game win streak
, outscoring opponents by an average final of 86.5-67.8. However, a team that App had fits with was a program that turned into a longstanding rival in the SoCon in Marshall. The Thundering Herd's 69-64 victory over the Mountaineers in Boone snapped the win streak, was the only blemish on App's conference mark and led to a season split with an average margin of victory of 3.5 points through both contests.
Both teams went into the SoCon Tournament as regular
-season champs and earned first-round byes. Wins in the semifinal round fittingly pitted the two foes in what was an entertaining SoCon final. Marshall went into the game with more championship experience
, having advanced to the previous two finals despite falling in both contests. After the Thundering Herd went into halftime with a 35-27 lead, Robinson and her staff made a halftime adjustment that helped App come out on top in exhilarating fashion, 68-65, to bring home the SoCon trophy.
"The second half of that ball game, we made a huge decision at halftime to not guard one of their key players because she was struggling shooting," Robinson
remembers. "She was left-handed, Lea Ann Parsley, very bright student-athlete and we all respected her a lot. So when she would get the ball in her typical shooting range, we wouldn't guard her, and we would double team down low on a couple of their players. It totally changed the game. They had two players that were hurting us badly on the low block and the top of the key. They had a big kid that could shoot the ball outside, and we just needed help. We did some physical and mental work. It gave our kids confidence."
App fell in its final three games in the WNIT, but in just three years, Robinson and her staff
had taken a six-win squad and turned it into a force in the SoCon for years to come.
When asked if the first of five consecutive conference titles was the most enjoyable, Robinson states, "It really was."
There's nothing quite like the first.
1986-87 Roster
11 - Debbie Swicegood
12 - Joanie Brackett
13 - Valerie Morgan
20 - Jane Dalton
22 - Peggy Roda
25 - Marcheta Sigmon
31 - Lisa Barrett
33 - Valorie Whiteside
42 - Tonya Lemmon
44 - Beth Laney Queen
45 - Karen Robinson
