March 7, 2008
Lafayette senior forward Vanessa Van De Venter experienced an unusual phenomenon before the start of Lafayette's Nov. 27 game against St. Francis. For the first time in her collegiate career, Van De Venter was nervous. Coming into the contest with 994 career points, this was going to be the game she reached the 1,000-point mark.
"I tried not to be nervous and I kept telling myself I wasn't, but I was and you could tell," she said. "I felt it in me."
Van De Venter put her nerves to good use and came into the game with energy. She scored four of the team's first eight points to give the Leopards an early 8-3 lead.
"I knew she would do it and she's not the type of player who would force things, nor did we run anything special for her to get those six quick points," Lafayette Head Coach Tammy Smith said. "That wasn't in our game plan. We didn't talk about it before the game. We didn't want to put any added pressure on her for that reason."
Her nerves kicked back into gear as she remained two points short of the mark that only 13 other women have achieved in the 35-year history of the program. She went on a rare cold streak, missing her next four shots.
"It was subconscious because I wasn't really thinking about it, but layups that I usually make, I missed. Jump shots that I usually make, I missed," Van De Venter said.
Her dry spell didn't last for long. Van De Venter sank a layup with 7:34 left in the first half, extending the Leopards' lead to 15 and becoming the first player to hit the mark since Colleen Fitzpatrick in 2004.
"I'm thankful it was only six [points that she needed] because after she scored that she came out in the second half and was much more relaxed and just played like Vandy," Smith said. "Trying to get that 1,000th point is hard for players and she did look nervous. She acted a little nervous, too, but she pulled through and had an outstanding game."
The Business & Economics major is the first player Smith has recruited and the second she has coached to hit the 1,000-point plateau. Fitzpatrick, whom Smith coached in the beginning of her career at Lafayette and who graduated in 2004, is fourth on the all-time scorers list with 1,399 points. She and Van De Venter have met on several occasions when Fitzpatrick has returned to Kirby Sports Center for games. The two share more than their scoring accomplishments: both wore No. 30 for Lafayette.
Van De Venter said she was "ecstatic" to break the record on her home court and is thankful she fell short of the mark in the team's road win against Princeton a week earlier. She credits teammate Brittany Purr for jinxing her against the Tigers by letting her know that she was only seven points shy of 1,000 with 15 minutes left in the game.
"I missed almost every shot after that. I scored one point in the last fifteen minutes of the game," she said laughing. "So she sort of jinxed me but in a good way because I had my parents and the Lafayette students there to see my 1,000th point at home."
In attendance were many of her former teammates and coaches at Pocono Mountain East High School, where she also scored 1,000 points. The gymnasium erupted in cheers after Van De Venter scored her 1,000th point and a banner her current teammates made congratulating her on her accomplishment was hung during the next timeout.
