ST. JOSEPH, Minn. – Maddie Schmitz's senior season with the College of Saint Benedict basketball team wasn't at all how she or her teammates had imagined it, but she made the most of it.
 
Schmitz led not only the Bennies – whose nine games played were the most of any team in the MIAC this season – but the entire MIAC in both scoring and rebounding in 2021, and finished the season with eight double-doubles.
 
After an impressive senior season both on the court as an athlete and on the sidelines as a team leader, head coach Mike Durbin announced this week that Schmitz is the team's 2021 MVP. Junior Kate Seyer was named the team's Most Improved, and first year Carla Meyer won the Coach's Award.
 
Schmitz started the 2021 season with career-highs in scoring and rebounds in a win over Concordia on Feb. 3 – the team's first game in nearly a year – and never looked back. She scored 20 or more points in five of nine games, and had double-digit rebounds in all but one game as a senior. She finished the season averaging 18.8 points and 12.0 rebounds per game – which led the MIAC in teams that played the entire shortened season.
 
Schmitz shot .479 from field-goal range and finished the season 51-for-60 from the line – including an impressive 12-for-12 in a Feb. 6 win over Hamline. She wraps up her four-year career with 887 points, 476 rebounds and an average of 10.2 points per game.
 
After scoring just 15 points in her first two years with the CSB basketball team combined, Seyer took on a much larger role with the team in 2021, and stepped up to the challenge. She scored a career-high 18 points on Feb. 21 against Gustavus, and pulled down a career-high six rebounds twice. Seyer finished her junior season third on the team with 10.2 points per game, and also averaged 3.8 rebounds. She averaged nearly 30 minutes per game.
 
Meyer came in and made an immediate impact for the Bennies as a first year in 2021. She finished second on the team in scoring, but when she wasn't scoring, she was making plays. Meyer led the MIAC with 45 assists in nine games played, and she had three games with eight or more assists – including a career-best nine assists in a March 3 win over Augsburg. She scored a career-high 14 points against the Auggies, and finished the season averaging 11.9 points, 3.3 rebounds and 5.0 assists per game.
 
CSB finished the season 4-5 overall, including the team's first win over St. Thomas since 2013. Schmitz is the lone senior on the roster, and Durbin returns plenty of talent in 2021-22, including both Seyer and Meyer.