The 2009-10 season was improving for the women’s basketball team as it finished eighth in the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) and got to the quarterfinals of the conference tournament. The driving force behind this team was the play of senior captains and forwards Kendra Walton and Kim Carr. They led the Huskies, who finished the season 13-18 overall with a 7-11 record in conference play.
Although Walton’s and Carr’s senior seasons came to end earlier then they would have liked, the Huskies will miss the duo, who have both been team captains for the past three seasons. They are also the first group of recruits to play their entire career under head coach Daynia La-Force Mann.
“They were here all four years with me,” head coach Daynia La-Force Mann said. “They showed the younger players what it takes to learn and grow while being coached by me.”
In Walton’s four years at Northeastern she has achieved a lot of success on the basketball court. She finished her career at Northeastern leading the school all-time in 3-point field goals made. Her 62 three-point field goals in the 2009-10 season rank as the fifth most in a single season in Huskies history.
In her freshman season, she started her career strongly by hitting a 3-pointer on her first touch of the basketball against Duke. From there she went on to start 62 of her 104 career games. She was named CAA player of the week her sophomore year after a 19-point performance at UMass. Her junior year she put up her best scoring average at 10.4 points per game over the season.
“I’m really glad I came here,” Walton said. “I did a lot of things here. I met a lot of great people. Basketball allowed me to go a lot of places.”
A native of East Hartford, Conn., she is a criminal justice major and will graduate from Northeastern in May.
“I’m thinking about maybe playing overseas,” Walton said. “Also a possibility is getting a job in probation in Connecticut.”
In her free time, Walton said she is like any other average college kid.
“I like to hang out with my teammates,” she said. “I like to go to the movies and go shopping as well.”
Carr finished her career as one of the best players in Northeastern history, with 994 points, good for 15th all-time at Northeastern. Her 484th field goal percentage ranks third all-time at NU. This past season her 55.7 percent shooting from the floor is a Huskies record. She ranks third in all-time school history with 111 career blocks, and her 53 steals is tied for 10th all-time at Northeastern.
In her sophomore year, she started 21 of the 26 games she played in. The next two seasons she went on to start every game. Her best game came her junior year against Rhode Island in which she had a career-high 22 points. Her best season however was her senior year. She averaged 12 points a game, which was second on the team only to sophomore guard Brittany Wilson.
“My four years here were very special,” she said. “It was definitely a learning experience with the different teams coaches and professors … It’s really taught me and made me learn to speak my mind more instead of being quiet all the time.”
Carr said she plans on graduating this May in criminal justice. Carr comes from Baltimore, Md. and said she would like to go back there once she graduates, if she does not play overseas.
“If I don’t play basketball overseas I want to go back home to Maryland,” Carr said. “I would like to pursue a job in criminal justice.”
In her free time Carr likes to play Nintendo Wii and knit, she said.
La-Force Mann said the Huskies will have their hands full when it comes to replacing what they brought to the table in terms of play and leadership.
