Most teams in recreation leagues have more players than this season's Grove City College women's basketball squad. During action at a Wolverines' game there are more coaches on the bench than players in uniform ... and Grove City has just three coaches.

Trailing Bethany College by 13 points with eight minutes left to play, Grove City coach Sarah Harris wanted to toss a full-court press at the visitors, but she couldn't. After all, a coach can ask only so much of her players.

What's remarkable is that the Grove City women's team has 11 victories in 25 games and finished the regular season in fourth place in the Presidents' Athletic Conference at 7-7.The Wolverines have managed all that with only seven players.

Yes, Grove City is an NCAA Division III school and teams at that level tend to be smaller in numbers because there are no athletic scholarships. But seven players? The college's cheerleading squad has at least nine.

OK, so Grove City has eight on the women's roster counting Jenna Johnston. But she is out with an ACL injury after playing in 11 games. And transfer Megan Gibson didn't pull on a uniform until after Jan. 1.

So, Harris has had seven players at her disposal the entire season.

"We went to a tournament at Messiah College and we come into the gym and the person is there who's going to take us to our locker room, and we're standing there and he says 'Where's the rest of your team?' and we said, 'This is it,'" said Christine Slater, a sophomore forward and Center High School graduate.

"We'll hear it from the refs. They'll say, 'Is this it?'" said Raeann Szelong, a Hampton graduate and the only senior on the roster. "We have three captains and when they go out to meet with the officials [before the start of a game] we have only four players left under the hoop. We can't even run some of our warm-up drills at that point."

There were a couple of times this season when Harris had just six players available. Johnston, a Clarion-Limestone High graduate, was injured Jan. 5 against Penn State Behrend. Gibson, who transferred to Grove City from Mount St. Mary's in Maryland where she did not play basketball, didn't play until Jan. 14. Grove City lost at Thomas More, 74-41, Jan. 7, but won at Bethany, 64-60, three days later.

"I have so much respect for that team," Bethany coach Rebecca Upton said after her team won at Grove City, 67-59, Feb. 11. "I told our players not to underestimate them before we played them."

How did Grove City end up in this situation? Harris wishes she had a dime for every time she has been asked that question.

She has never been big on having a large roster. Twelve players saw action last season as Grove City finished 11-16, advancing to the second round of the PAC tournament. Two players graduated but five others decided not to play this season. Only two freshmen -- Megan Gebrosky from Seneca Valley High School and Jayme Caldwell from Smithville, Ohio -- came out for the team.

"That's not atypical at the Division III level," said Harris, who is in her third season as Grove City's coach, of veteran players not coming back out for the team. "They decided to focus on other things. After one thing and another we were down to seven by Oct. 15."

It was about then that Harris looked at her schedule and wondered, "How do we compete?"

"I didn't know how to run a practice with just seven players," she said. "We had to be creative."

That meant Harris and assistants Chelle Fuss and Elizabeth Fox had to do more than just coach in practice. They had to be dummy defensive players when the Wolverines worked on offense.

Without a prolific scorer -- Slater is the team's leader and the only one in double figures at 14.8 points per game -- the idea before the season was for Grove City to use full-court pressure to force turnovers and create scoring opportunities.

"When we ended up with seven players that went out the window," Harris said. "We had to go to plan Z."

That calls for the Wolverines to push the ball on offense, and scrap and pressure the basketball in the halfcourt on defense. They are in constant motion and never appear to wear out.

"It's not our strong suit to slow it down," Harris said. "We need to push the tempo to score. That's the reason we go full tilt for 40 minutes."

Szelong, who is the point guard, is averaging an amazing 36.5 minutes a game and in some contests has played 39 minutes. Slater averages 34.2 minutes, Laura Miller 33 and Krista Beechy almost 31.

"We love timeouts," Slater said. "But you try not to think about [how much you're playing]. Everyone is tired."

It took the Wolverines a while to get used to being understaffed. They lost their first five games, then won three in a row and six of nine.

"For the players, I think there has been a sense of satisfaction in knowing they did everything they were capable of doing with no excuses," Harris said. "There are moments in life when they're going to be faced with obstacles, there will be times when they'll want to take a day off. Life doesn't let you do that. Our players have never made any excuses."

Harris hopes to avoid a repeat of the situation next season. Ideally, she wants a roster of 12 or 13 players. She is concerned about how this season will affect recruiting. She said having seven players might suggest instability in her program to potential recruits.

Truth is, her program has gotten better each year, going 5-20 record in 2007 to 11-16 last year. The Wolverines equaled their victory total from last season with 75-64 win yesterday afternoon at Thiel. Grove City will entertain Thiel (10-14) in a PAC quarterfinal at 7 p.m. Tuesday..

"We have women of tremendous character and faith," Harris said. "We're not a talented basketball team, but we have players who have overcome adversity and they've give all that they have every game. You can't ask any more than that."