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BERWICK &#8212; A whirlwind week for Abbey Rodway ended in victory.It also ended all doubts Wyoming Seminary may have had about the direction of its girls basketball program.Just hired late Thursday night on the eve of the start of the 2015-16 season, Rodway achieved her first career coaching victory Saturday when her new Sem squad roll past Bloomsburg, 41-23 in the consolation game of the Nespoli Tournament at Berwick Middle School.&#8220;My first career win!&#8221; Rodway exclaimed. &#8220;It feels great. The girls are great. They&#8217;re hard workers. We only got one practice in, but I&#8217;m confident we&#8217;re going to have a great year.&#8221;Rodway became the fourth coach to lead the Blue Knights during the past eight months.The dilemma for Sem began when former coach Ken Angradi left the position and wound up as an assistant with Holy Redeemer following last season.The Wyoming Seminary administration hired veteran Marty Mrozinski, a long-time head coach for Penn State/Hazleton&#8217;s softball and women&#8217;s basketball teams, to lead the Blue Knights this season.But Mrozinski passed away unexpectedly two weeks ago, stunning the Sem program.&#8220;It was really devastating,&#8221; said junior Maya Kornfeld, a returning starting guard. &#8220;Our whole team really liked him.&#8221;Following Mrozinski&#8217;s death, Sem assistant Deidre Kennedy coached the Blue Knights through nearly two weeks worth of practices until a full-time head coach was hired.Enter Rodway.A former player for Lackawanna College, she wound up graduating from West Chester University with a minor in coaching. Rodway received hands-on training by helping out the West Chester women&#8217;s basketball coaching staff after suffering a broken ankle during college basketball tryouts and then deciding to forego the idea of teaming with players in favor of helping to instruct them.&#8220;I have a passion for basketball,&#8221; Rodway said. &#8220;I certainly wanted to coach.&#8221;She said she heard about the vacancy at Sem through a friend, applied for the position earlier this week and was interviewed Wednesday before conducting her &#8220;try-out&#8221; practice Thursday.&#8220;I interviewed Wednesday, had my first practice Thursday and after that I was hired,&#8221; Rodway said. &#8220;I had my first game Friday and my first win (Saturday).&#8221;That came when Kornfeld poured in a game-high 16 points and Miranda Pace, back from an ACL injury suffered early last season, completed a double-double with 10 points and 14 rebounds.&#8220;We needed a win,&#8221; said Kornfeld, who helped Sem improve to 1-1 on the season. &#8220;I&#8217;m glad we got our new coach, We really like her, too. She&#8217;s really nice but she can also yell if she needs to. She&#8217;s really energetic. Our coach last year (Angradi), he was energetic as well. It went from an energetic coach to someone who was quiet (Mrozinski) but really knowledgeable to our new coach, who is really energetic. She was excited (Friday), even more excited today.&#8220;I&#8217;m glad we got someone like her.&#8221;For Rodway, there was only one drawback - the way her first-ever head coaching job came open.&#8220;I&#8217;m not happy that he passed away,&#8221; Rodway said of Mrozinski. &#8220;But I love basketball and I love coaching.&#8221;Wyoming Seminary 41, Bloomsburg 23BLOOMSBURG (23) &#8212; Megan Haines 3 2-4 11, Alexus Howell 2 0-0 4, Emily Pitonyak 0 0-0 0, Molly Williams 2 1-2 6, Flannery Cotter 0 2-4 2 Jercora Witherspoon 0 0-0 0, Katie Klingerman 0 0-0 0, Niomi Stroh 0 0-0 0, Jaryn Bond 0 0-0 0, Haley Widom 0 0-0 0. Totals 7 5-10 23.WYOMING SEMINARY (41) &#8212; Maya Kornfeld 5 5-11 16, Miranda Pace 5 0-1 10, Paige Allen 1 0-0 2, Cobie Wise 2 0-0 5, Mary Theresa Lehman 2 0-0 6, Annemaaike Reitsma 1 0-0 2, Brenna Satkowski 0 0-0 0, Julia Iskra 0 0-0 0, Julia Gabriel 0 0-0 0, Olivia Meuser 0 0-0 0, Mia Raineri 0 0-1 0. Totals 16 5-13 x.Bloomsburg`1`7`8`7`&#8212;`23Wyoming Seminary`10`12`7`12`&#8212;`41Three-point goals &#8212; BLOOM 4 (Haines 3, Williamsme x); SEM 4 (Lehman 2, Kornfeld, Wise).&#8221;<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta>By Paul Sokoloskipsokoloski@www.timesleader.com</bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta>Reach Paul Sokoloski at 570-991-6392 or on Twitter @TLPaulSokoloski</shirttailMeta></div>

Wyoming Seminary new girls basketball coach Abbey Rodway leads team to first victory