On Monday, the CCRI women’s basketball team flew out of T.F Green Airport for Peoria, Ill., site of the National Junior College Athletic Association Division II National Tournament. It’s a familiar trip for the Lady Knights, who have now been to nationals six years in a row.

What it took to earn the trip wasn’t quite so familiar.

Any time a team is aiming for nationals, it’s going to face tests along the way, but this year’s test may have trumped them all. On March 7, the Lady Knights found themselves one win away from nationals, but with one very big obstacle standing in their way. Union County College of New Jersey came into the Vincent A. Cullen Field House for the Northeast District Championship carrying a 28-0 record and a No. 5 national ranking. The Owls figured to grab the district title and the nationals berth that came with it.

CCRI, which came into the game with a 22-6 record, had other ideas. After a Union County run put them down by 10 with five minutes left, the Lady Knights roared back and tied the game at 63-63. In the final seconds, CCRI sophomore All-American Taylor Simmons put in a driving layup to give the Lady Knights the victory.

“This team never stopped believing they could win,” said head coach Kevin Monagle.

That belief certainly served them well, and it could mean big things again at nationals. The Lady Knights started play Wednesday with another stiff test – a match-up against undefeated Allegany College of Maryland. Before departing for Illinois, Monagle said the Lady Knights were ready.

“We have knocked off undefeated teams before,” he said. “This is nothing new to us.”

Regardless of what happens at nationals, the path CCRI took to get there won’t soon be forgotten.

The Lady Knights started the season with high hopes after posting one of the best years in school history in 2007-08. Head coach Marcus Reilly left to become the head man at Rhode Island College, but with Monagle, previously a men’s team assistant, stepping in and a strong nucleus returning, the Lady Knights hoped they wouldn’t miss a beat.

In the early going, they didn’t. They won their first six games, doing it by an average margin of 29 points. From there, the Lady Knights hit a rough patch, going 4-4 in their next eight games. After that, though, it was smooth sailing, as the Lady Knights won 11 of their final 13 regular-season games.

One of the two losses in that stretch was a 63-50 defeat at the hands of Union County. When the Lady Knights clinched the regional title by virtue of their regular-season record, it set up a rematch.

Monagle told his team that it would be a grind.

“We talked all week about grinding out the game, how it was going to be physical and difficult and that we had to play through the good and the bad,” Monagle said.

The Lady Knights certainly did that. They scored eight of the game’s first 10 points and led throughout the first half. But if that was the good, the bad was that the Lady Knights couldn’t pull away. Union stayed close and trimmed the deficit to four at halftime.

There was more trouble in the second half, as Union made a big run to jump in front by 10. The same thing had happened in the regular-season meeting and that time, the Lady Knights couldn’t recover.

This time was different. CCRI started chipping away and when a Lauren Harrington steal set up a Rachel Murray bucket, the lead was down to five. Simmons then took over, scoring two on a driving layup and converting an old-fashioned three-point play on another drive to tie the game.

After the teams traded empty trips, Union County took over with 30 seconds left and the game still tied. But as the Owls set up for the last shot, an errant pass skipped out of bounds, giving CCRI the ball with 12.8 seconds remaining.

Not surprisingly, Simmons got the call again and once more drove to the basket.

She made a layup with 1.3 seconds left to give CCRI the lead. A desperation heave from Union County came up short, sealing the win for the Lady Knights.

Simmons finished the game with 27 points.

“I knew when I was driving that I was going to make the shot,” Simmons said. “I was confident.”

That confidence isn’t unexpected. The Lady Knights are a veteran team, with sophomores Simmons, Harrington, Rachel Murray, Jackie Murray, Sharniece Williams, Tonisha Tate and Nicole Girard all playing big minutes. Williams had a double-double against Union with 14 points and 14 rebounds.

“It’s nice having those sophomores that have played together,” Monagle said. “No situation is overwhelming.”

If any situation could be overwhelming, it was this one. The Lady Knights never had it easy against Union, but somehow managed to keep pushing.

“The afternoon did not go as planned, but we adapted and overcame a number of challenges,” Monagle said. “These are the types of things the coaching staff has been emphasizing all season, and it seemed to click today. From early foul trouble, to a period of time where we couldn’t score, to numerous players with four fouls, the team always looked to make the next play.”

Down the stretch, the Lady Knights made all the plays, turning the 10-point deficit into a victory.

“We spoke about valuing the basketball and minimizing turnovers,” Monagle said. “It turned out that we didn’t make those mistakes down the stretch.”

And that was enough to earn a special trip. The Lady Knights headed into the national tournament as one of the unseeded teams. Twelve teams compete, but only the top eight are seeded. Of those, the top four get first-round byes.

CCRI was scheduled to play the first game of the tournament. With a win, CCRI would face top-ranked Kirkwood today.