She led the AU Women's Basketball team in scoring last year. She was an All-Patriot League player in the preseason. She was the glue that held a team together through a coaching change in the offseason. 2004-2005 was supposed to be Chanel Hunt's season.
And then this season happened. Coming into the year, she was counted on to average almost 20 points a game and pull down eight or nine rebounds per contest, giving the Eagles the type of inside-outside threat that would likely have them playing well into March.
Unfortunately, injuries to her knee as well as to the rest of the Eagles team, combined with a lack of aggression, hurt Hunt's progress. She is currently averaging 11 points and five rebounds per contest while shooting only 36 percent, far below the league leaders who are averaging 17 points and seven rebounds, and shooting better than 50 percent.
"Certainly Chanel hasn't had the type of senior year we were expecting, but I think a lot of it is that she has struggled with the expectations," said head coach Melissa McFerrin. Hunt's goals didn't change coming into the season, but her game approach has been affected by a knee injury she suffered early in the year.
"The knee got worse as time went on, and it started to affect me more and more," Hunt said. "But it's been getting better lately."
And now is when the Eagles need her most. Five games ago, after a dreadful 68-47 home loss to archrival Holy Cross in which Hunt scored only three points on 1-of-8 shooting and grabbed only two rebounds, McFerrin made the decision to switch to a three-guard lineup and bring in Hunt off the bench.
"This was the same case as with any player not performing to expectations. By no means was it personal or was I trying to play head games to motivate her," McFerrin said. "We're just putting the best lineup out there to give her a chance."
While Hunt may not be starting, she's still in the game when it counts, playing the final minutes of every game.
"[Coming off the bench] doesn't bother me at all as long as I get to play," Hunt said.
And getting to play is something she's been doing lately, as she has averaged more than 20 minutes in the five games since she's gone to the bench. Last Friday, she had her best performance, playing 28 minutes and scoring 19 points on efficient 7-of-12 shooting in AU's huge 51-47 win at Army.
But a 3-for-15 showing at Holy Cross on Sunday followed this flash of brilliance. The inconsistency has been the overriding problem of Hunt's season.
"The inconsistency has always been the same since I got here," Hunt said.
While the shots weren't falling at Holy Cross, McFerrin said she was happy with the effort her senior leader put forward and believes Hunt has taken the next step toward becoming more consistent at the right time of the year.
For the past two seasons, Hunt has led AU in scoring, but she currently trails fellow senior Joanna Barnes by 3.5 points. While individual goals are unimportant at this stage, Hunt will need to step up and be the main scorer down the stretch, as Barnes has had to slide back to point guard with the injury to starter Tala Hadavi.
But all can be forgiven if Hunt gets hot and the Eagles can run the table. With Bucknell and Colgate coming into town this weekend, AU has two winnable games that could put it right in the thick of the PL race.
"We feel like if we put a couple good games together, someone will fall and we'll be able to get that second seed in the tournament," Hunt said.
McFerrin knows that in order for her Eagles to put those games together and make a run at the conference crown, Hunt must step up and become that dominating force she was expected to be.
"We need her to be a scorer, to exhibit energy and grab loose balls," McFerrin said. "There's so much pressure on our defense when we can't score, so if she can put in 16, 17, 18 points, that takes a lot of pressure off on the other end."
The goal from the beginning was always the same: the NCAA tournament.
How the Eagles have gotten here isn't what's important; how they go is. And these Eagles may fly only as high as Chanel Hunt takes them.
