When it comes to winning streaks, the longer they go on, the harder they are to keep up. You get a target on your back the better you are, and when you dominate the competition, everybody wants to be the David to you Goliath.
If that's truly the case, then when it comes to the Fairleigh Dickinson-Florham Devils, that target might be seen from space. The Devils are definitely a super-sized Goliath, having won 45 games in a row, including the 2014 DIV III Women's Basketball Championship which capped off a 33-0 season.
Their victory last March marked the first time a New Jersey women's basketball team won a national championship, which resulted in getting honored by the New Jersey State Senate over the summer.
At the ceremony, former Governor Dick Codey said, "They have achieved something that no other New Jersey basketball program has. They are hard-working student athletes who not only have excelled in the classroom but have reached the pinnacle in college sports. These FDU women of New Jersey are fabulous."
The team looks 'fabulous' again this season, as they are off to a 13-0 start heading into their next game against the Eastern University Eagles at home on January 14. During this run they have gathered tournament titles along with wins as they swept the Stockton Tip-Off Tournament, the D3Hoops.com Classic and the NYU Holiday Classic.
When a team wins this much, there are always individuals who stand out. One such player is senior guard Leigh-Ann Lively who set the school's all-time career 3-point field goals made record with 154 during the NYU Tournament. This was just after she set the school record for 3-pointers in a single game with 7 during the D3Hoops.com tournament and if she keeps up her scoring average of 12.2 points per game, she is likely to become the fifteenth Devil player to score 1,000 points in a career.
She'd join senior forward and Trenton, New Jersey native Kyra Dayon, who joined the 1,000-point club last season as she was named the Freedom Conference Player of the Year and could very well finish her career with the second highest scoring total in program history.
To understand how amazing this team's run is, you have to look back to 2009 when head coach Marc Mitchell took over the program. In the previous 29 seasons, FDU-Florham had never won a conference championship and frequently finished off the year with a losing season.
At first, things weren't all that much better as Mitchell's first two years were both losing ones, totaling just 20 wins compared to 30 losses.
Then he recruited Dayon and her twin sister Kara into the program and things began to turn around. After a 13-13 season the year after the Dayon sisters arrived at FDU-Florham, the team went 24-4 and won their first conference title.
Currently ranked as the No. 1 DIV III team in the country, FDU-Florham has continued to roll through its schedule, but could see a challenger from their own home state.
It seems the Montclair State Red Hawks, who are currently 13-0 as well, have landed on the DIV III rankings at No.5.
Could we be looking at a New Jersey collision in the Division III National Championship Tournament? Last season, the two met in the tournament during the Sectionals, with the Devils coming out on top, 73-53. If both teams keep up their winning ways, it's a real possibility the two could meet again.
So things could get very interesting for New Jersey women's basketball in March.
Andrew Garda may be reached at andrew.garda@gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter @Andrew_Garda. Find NJ.com on Facebook.