GREEN BAY — The UW-Green Bay women’s basketball team has won an astonishing 14 games in a row and they’ve gotten an extra boost recently thanks to the return of one of their biggest stars.
“When you set out for your senior year, that's not really what you expect and that’s really hard to swallow,” UW-Green Bay head coach Kayla Karius said of senior forward Maddy Schreiber.
A starter for the Phoenix since she was a freshman, Maddie Schreiber was poised for a big senior year.
“They have been making a huge mark on this program for four and five years and it’s really special and pretty rare to be able to do,” Karius said of Schreiber and some of the other senior starters on the team.
However, 12 games into her final season, she breaks her wrist against Creighton and has to have surgery.
“It's kind of hard to accept at first, but once you accept it, you become stronger as a person and it's easier to make it through,” Schreiber said.
She says her time healing on the bench gave her a different perspective, seeing things she doesn’t normally see while playing. It was fun to watch her teammates rattle off 10 straight wins before she came back.
“That was really fun Just watching everybody succeed when you're off the court,” said Schreiber. “But then when you're on the court and being involved in it and making baskets and being a part of it on the court is a lot of fun too. It's really exciting just to be all back a part of it again.”
For a squad that was red hot, her team was happy to see her comeback four games ago and she helped them extend that win streak to 14. Schreiber was leading the team in points and second in rebounds before her injury.
“What can I say, that’s a first-team all-league player and she’s – with her skillset, with her size, she is so capable of going right back to where she was before,” Karius said of Schreiber.
In the first two games she was back, she scored a total of 11 points, but in the last two, she said she’s feeling a lot more like herself, putting up 30.
“I feel a lot more like myself,” said the Phoenix senior. “The first few games I was a little like timid and shy but I feel like I'm a lot more comfortable in my skin again and just playing the way that I can play. “
Schreiber is not just adjusting to coming back from injury, but also a new role, coming off the bench.
“I think that’s incredible energy she brings with her and brings scoring right off the bench,” Karius said of Schreiber. “We’re in a pretty nice spot to have that back with the depth that we have.”
Even though she’s missed a large part of her final season, the Phoenix star out of Kimberly High School says the last four years have been absolutely incredible.
“I couldn't ask for a better experience and looking back, I mean, this community is absolutely amazing. They will do anything and everything for you and they support you through it all and I'm just really thankful to have gotten the opportunity to be here.”
When Schreiber’s career is all said and done, she said she plans to get into teaching, maybe coaching, and maybe a playing career overseas.
