A 6-foot-1 inch forward from South Deerfield, MA, Jennifer M. Zabek was the first impact freshman recruit for current head coach Denise Bierly, who inherited a 3-22 team in 1994/95 following the 1993 retirement of the program’s all-time winningest coach, Bob Miller. In Zabek’s freshman season of 1995/96, Eastern won 19 games overall and 10 of 12 games in the Little East Conference regular season and captured the LEC tournament title and reached the NCAA Division III tournament.
Zabek was a four-year starter between 1995 and 1999, leading Eastern to two post-season tournament berths, and an overall record of 67-39 (63.2 percent), including 35-17 (67.3 percent) in regular-season conference play. As a senior, Zabek was named WBCA Division III All-America honorable mention, fourth-team All-America by Women’s DIII News, WBCA All-Northeast District (one five-person team was chosen), first-team All-New England by both the ECAC and the New England Women’s Basketball Association (NEWBA) and LEC Player-of-the-Year as a repeat selection to the all-conference team. That year, she was named NEWBA and LEC Player-of-the-Week four times.
In that senior season, Zabek totaled 480 points with an 18.5 scoring average -- both representing the second-best season marks at the time. She also had an 8.4 rebounding average and 59.2 shooting percentage (ninth nationally/second in New England), and led the LEC in scoring average, points, and field goal percentage, was second in blocks (1.5) and free throw percentage (73.9) and fifth in rebounding.
In the final three games of her career – two coming in post-season tournament play – Zabek averaged 20.7 points and 13.0 rebounds with a 52.5 shooting percentage. She was 20-for-27 from the foul line and totaled 11 blocked shots – a career-high seven coming in the final game of her career in the ECAC New England Division III Tournament.
As a freshman in 1995, Zabek was the only newcomer in the opening-day starting lineup, when she started the first eight and last three (post-season) games of the season. In the championship game of the Eastern Tip-Off Tournament in her second game, she led both teams with 16 points (7-for-9 from the floor) and eight rebounds with only one turnover in 32 minutes. As a sophomore, she shot 61.4 percent from the floor and in each of her final two years, connected on better than 73 percent of her free throws. Her field goal percentages of 61.4 as a sophomore and 59.2 percent as a senior currently rank 3-4 all-time in a season at Eastern.
In her career, Zabek averaged 11.4 points, 6.9 rebounds and 1.1 block shots with a 57.4 shooting percentage. She graduated ranked fourth all-time in scoring (1,174 points) and rebounding (707), and first in blocked shots (111) and field goal percentage (57.4) and third in free throw percentage (69.5). Through 2014/15, she is ranked among the all-time Top 10 in eight individual career statistical categories. Among the Top 10 scorers in program history, Zabek is the only one not to have attempted as many as 1,000 field goals.
Zabek becomes the second of Bierly’s 107 letterwinners over 21 seasons to gain E-Club induction.
