A team of ��ݮ���� senior accounting majors tied for fourth place in the final round of competition with a team from the University of Virginia in the ninth annual Goodman & Company Accounting Challenge in the fall of 2010.

The team – consisting of Brittany S. Snyder, Raphine, Va.; Heidi A. Boese, Hesston, Kan.; Eric B. Yoder, Narvon, Pa.; and Jason D. Ropp, Iowa City, Iowa – was one of 33 teams from colleges and universities from Virginia and Maryland who took a six-hour business exam the second week of October.

The EMU team was one of only five to advance to the final round of the competition held Nov. 5 in Richmond, Va. Here, the EMU students took another intensive, six-hour exam of practical business questions.

For finishing tied for fourth place, the team was awarded $750 for the EMU business and economics department, and each student received $250 from Goodman & Company. Another team from U.Va. finished first in the contest, followed by teams from William & Mary and James Madison University.

“I’m really proud of these students,” said , professor of business and economics and MBA program co-director at EMU. “It was definitely a team effort.

“It’s great to have this kind of external validation of our business program and our students,” Stoltzfus added.

“It’s an affirmation of our curriculum and says that our students are well prepared to enter the job market and go on to graduate school,” he added.

Article courtesy Crossroads magazine, fall/winter 2010-11

Brittany Snyder was deadly from the floor as she nailed three of her six three pointers and scored 16 points during the recent game win over Bridgewater.

Ideally, Brittany Snyder would be ��ݮ����’s featured scoring threat.

The petite shooting guard has a quick release and lots of touch, especially from 3-point range. But Snyder has a thyroid condition that can instantly sap her energy, making her a game-time decision every time the Lady Royals play – or practice – since it was diagnosed in December 2008.

"It’s really tough," said Snyder, a Riverheads High School graduate. "Some days, I come in here and I’m feeling good, and then I get going and then I just crash at practice, and it’s just no good. Sometimes, I’m hovering over the trash can."

Tuesday night was not one of those nights.

Snyder leads in scoring

Snyder – a 5-foot-6 junior who missed EMU’s Jan. 2 win over Hollins with one of her "bad days" – came off the bench to score a game-high 16 points and lead the Royals to a 68-55 win over Bridgewater College in an Old Dominion Athletic Conference women’s basketball game at Yoder Arena marred by 43 turnovers and 35 fouls.

"Brittany, who didn’t play on Saturday, came out and hit some big shots tonight," EMU coach Kevin Griffin. "This a kid who sometimes can play, sometimes she can’t. Tonight was her night and she buried some shots."

Danielle Rittenhouse during a 12/5 game against Virginia Wesleyan.

Eastern Mennonite – 9-0 overall, 5-0 in the ODAC and off to its best start ever – also got contributions from Melissa Lewis and Danielle Rittenhouse.

Lewis, a nimble senior point guard and Stuarts Draft grad, added 15 points, and Rittenhouse, a freshman guard, added 11.

Lewis also made eight of nine free throws – including 4-for-4 in the final 1:03 – to help the Royals secure the win. Snyder went 5-of-6 from the line and made three of six from 3-point range.

"We say go get to the free-throw line," Griffin said. "That gives us a chance to rest, gives us a chance to set our defense, and it gets the other team in foul trouble."

All of those things were true Tuesday.

Fouls make trouble for BC

Melissa Lewis during the EMU Tip-Off Classic in late November 2009.

After having just three fouls in the first half, Bridgewater (3-4, 1-3) picked up 16 in the second, including one behind the 3-point line on Snyder with 10:09 to play.

Snyder, a 73-percent free-throw shooter, made all three to push the Royals’ lead back to double digits.

"We started getting out of position," said 6-1 BC freshman forward Jackie Buckley, who led the Eagles with 14 points and 11 rebounds. "In the beginning, we were playing really good defense. We were cutting them off, and in the second half, we didn’t give them that step, and they got around us and we lost position."

EMU extended its lead to a game-high 16 twice with under a minute to go after Bridgewater kept it within 10 for most of the game.

"I still have good days and bad days," said Snyder, who also is nursing a sore thumb and wrist – both of which are discolored and swollen. "But right now, I’m having more good than bad, so I’m thankful for that."

Learn more about the 2009 Lady Royals:

• Women’s basketball home
• Season schedule
• Head coach Kevin Griffin
  

]]> /now/news/2008/snyder-royals-surging/ Tue, 02 Dec 2008 05:00:00 +0000 http://www.emu.edu/blog/news/?p=1812 By Matthew Stoss, Daily News-Record

Sophomore guard Brittany Snyder

Brittany Snyder has unusually small feet. They are so small that at 19 years old, she still wears a size 6 – a children’s size 6. And that’s too large. The sophomore guard on the ��ݮ���� women’s basketball team said she’s actually more comfortable in a 5 1/2, but wears two pairs of socks to keep the 6s from sliding.

The rest of Snyder is equally miniature. She has hands that barely stretch across two laces on a basketball and match her slight build – and if EMU coach Kevin Griffin has complaints about Snyder, it’s that she hasn’t sculpted more muscle onto her sylph-like frame.

As for those hands and feet, he’ll leave those alone.

“The thing I noticed about her in high school,” Griffin said, “is she’s one of the few kids who can shoot the ball off a screen and off the dribble. Very few kids can do that. She gets it away in a hurry. She’s got such a quick release.”

The little feet are what Snyder uses to get open and the little hands – which have tremendous touch – are what have led the Riverheads High School graduate to the top of the Old Dominion Athletic Conference.

On Monday, Snyder scored a team-high 15 points as EMU improved to 6-0 overall and 2-0 in the ODAC with a 63-50 victory over Randolph College in Park View.

Going into Monday’s game, Snyder was third in the league, averaging 17.8 points per game and was first with 16 3-pointers. Her touch is so good that she hadn’t missed a free throw all season, going 13-for-13. It’s also earned her a fire-at-will policy from her coach.

“I have given her the green light,” Griffin said. “I’ve told her, ‘If you’re open and feel good, let it fly.'”

So far this season, the strategy has not only worked for Snyder but also the Royals, who are off to their best start since 2003-04 when they won their last ODAC championship. It’s also the best start in Griffin’s four-year tenure and includes an upset win over conference rival Lynchburg.

“We came out with a chip on our shoulder,” junior guard Ebony Dennis said. “People around the league picked us eighth. We just go into every game with nothing to lose.”

The Royals have three players averaging 10 points per game or better and have created problems with a run-and-gun style of play, which emphasizes transition baskets and tenacious man-to-man defense. That’s led to the second-best scoring defense in the ODAC (60.4 points per game) and has generated a league-best 62 steals (12.4 a game).

“Hard work pays off,” Snyder said of EMU’s success. “We’ve left it all on the court.”

Snyder is still trying to adjust to her continuous green light. She said in high school, she didn’t shoot much at all – a reason, Griffin hypothesized, that Eastern Mennonite was her only college suitor.

“I was shocked that more people didn’t want her,” he said.

But for Snyder, the major hurdle in adjusting to her shoot-at-your-leisure pass has been confidence and not understanding of how green that green light really was.

“He wanted me to shoot a lot more than I have,” said Snyder, who averaged 5.8 points in 15.7 minutes per game as a freshman. “… That was tough for me at first because coach has so much confidence in me – probably more than I have in myself. I just couldn’t believe it. How can he have so much confidence in me?”

The answer is straight forward.

“She’s the best shooter I’ve coached – boy or girl,” Griffin said. “Her form is perfect.”

The message, however, is sinking in.

“If I’m open, I try to take it,” Snyder said. “Because if I don’t, coach will roll me.”

Strangely, though, Snyder doesn’t have a reputation as a gunner – a player who shoots all the time, usually to the detriment of her team. Griffin said this is because of Snyder’s shot selection. He said she rarely forces shots and is aware of her limitations. And her teammates don’t see her as a black hole, either.

“She’s consistent,” Dennis said. “They always say good shooters keep shooting, even when they’re missing. … It seems like every game she’s hot.”

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