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Geistfeld nets player of the year

First-team All-Conference, first-team All-Region and Upper Midwest Athletic Conference player of the year.

Hanna Geistfeld racked up the awards after her junior basketball season at Bethany Lutheran College.

The 6-0 forward helped lead the Vikings to success the program had never seen.

BLC set program records for wins with a 24-4 record and longest winning streak at 13 games.

“At the beginning of the year, … we sit down together and our coach says to us like ‘what do you want to do this year?’ and our answer is always, well, ‘We want to win the conference and we want to win the conference championship, we want to go to the national tournament and we want to win the national tournament,’ because that’s always the goal,” Geistfeld said. “So going into it, I guess this year we just set a lot of goals.

“We started playing well towards the end, we just started working together really well.”

Not only did Bethany set a program high in wins, the Vikings won their first NCAA D-3 national tournament game, and the first in UMAC history.

BLC went into the tournament facing Bethel, with the Royals then the No. 2-ranked team in the NCAA DIII West region.

The Vikings held on to beat Bethel 62-58 and moved on to the second round to face the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh, with Oshkosh taking a 67-60 win and ending the Vikings’ season.

Geistfeld said playing in the NCAA national tournament was incredible, but one of the most memorable moments came after the final buzzer.

“It’s definitely a different atmosphere,” Geistfeld said of tournament play. “Playing Bethel at home was kind of crazy because they have a ton of fans, so the gym was just packed and it was so loud in there and we could hardly even hear each other at times. It was a really fun atmosphere to play in even though like, at most times, the loud crowd was against us. It was still really fun. And then, at the end, just walking out in the gym when the gym was just quiet and you could just hear our fans screaming, it was really awesome.”

Along with the team’s success through the year, Geistfeld posted good enough stats to be named to the All-Region first team, the first BLC player to be named to the first team.

Geistfeld started all 28 of the Vikings’ games and averaged a double-double with 20.8 points per game and 10.4 rebounds per game.

She finished the year with 582 points, 290 rebounds, 62 assists, 21 steals and eight blocks.

She said specific goals for the year helped her prepare for the season.

“My coaches told me at the beginning of the year, my two main goals that they wanted me to do was to run the floor and to finish,” Geistfeld said. “… I wanted to shoot like 60% or above every game and if I wasn’t doing that, I wasn’t really doing my job for my teammates. My teammates believe in me that if they’re going to get me the ball, it’s my job to finish because I’m not that far away from the basket. … and then if I’m not having a good game, then I know I need to look for my teammates and kick it out for them to hit a 3, which they’re really good at, too.”

With her success in her junior year, Geistfeld is on pace to write her name across the BLC record book.

She already set the single-season record for points, scoring average and field goals (220) in her junior year.

She is first in field goal percentage (.572) through three seasons, second in field goals (511) and third in games started (82) and points (1,327).

She holds the school single-game records for points (37) and field goals (16) both set in a game against Northland on Feb. 15.

Geistfeld said having her name in the record book will be cool, but she’s excited for her numbers to be passed.

“I just hope that it encourages, like younger girls coming up to realize that they can do it, they just have to work really hard. Records are made to be broken,” Geistfeld said. “So if people like my teammates under me go up and break those records, I’m just gonna be happy for them. Because, I mean, I just really want to make other people better, you know? I just want my teammates to be better too.”

Geistfeld said after all the success she and the team had this season, she can’t wait for next year. She said with the group of seniors returning for a final season, the extra motivation will help push each player and help the team reach its goal of achieving more than it did this season.

Geistfeld’s senior season will be the culmination of a basketball career that started in third grade.

She said competitiveness and teammates have driven her throughout her time on the hardwood. It will also get Geistfeld one step closer to her goal of being a teacher post college.

But for now, Geistfeld will focus on her online classes, which she said are going well through the first week, and work to repeat as the conference player of the year as a senior.

“They show that hard work pays off,” Geistfeld said of her numerous postseason honors. “But awards like that never come alone. It definitely takes my entire team to get me there. It takes my teammates practicing against me every single day. … And I have to credit my teammates a lot and my coaches especially because they’ve definitely helped me achieve everything that I’ve been honored with this season.”

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