Once Megan Storck's 3-point shot sailed through the net, the dream was seconds away from becoming reality - 28.6 seconds, to be exact.

California (Pa.) University held on for that amount of time and posted a 75-72 victory over Drury (Mo.) University in the NCAA Division II women's basketball national championship game last weekend.

The win made national championship coaches out of former Slippery Rock University women's coach Darcie Vincent and Cal's associate head coach, Slippery Rock High School and SRU graduate Heather Kearney.

"When Megan's shot went in … it was a dream come true," Kearney said. "That kind of atmosphere, national title game, 3,000 people watching, it's what you dream about as a player or a coach."

Kearney turned out to be pretty good at both. After graduating from The Rock as its all-time leading women's basketball scorer with 1,760 points and second-leading rebounder with 949, she joined Vincent's staff at SRU as a graduate assistant coach.

When Vincent took the coaching job at California, she immediately hired Kearney as an assistant coach.

"This wouldn't have happened if it wasn't for her," Vincent said. "Heather's had a tremendous impact here."

Kearney was a post player in high school and college, and now coaches those positions. The Vulcans are graduating two dominating post players in Becky Siembak (2,019 career points) and Sameera Philyaw (1,600-plus career points).

"Just watching those two come along is so rewarding as a coach," Kearney said. "I loved playing. I'll always miss playing, but coaching is much more satisfying."

Especially when you're winning, and California has done plenty of that. The Vulcans are 68-3 over the past two years - reaching the Division II semifinals last year - and have won 55 consecutive home games, the longest streak in the country.

Vincent is 112-19 in four years at California.

"I took this job to win a national championship," she said. "I know I was hired to do that. I never felt that pressure; I was intrigued by it."

Vincent was 52-54 in four years at SRU, including 23-7 her final year there, when The Rock reached the Elite Eight with a team of freshmen and sophomores.

That was also Kearney's first season as an assistant coach.

"That year definitely helped us," Vincent said. "When we went to Cal, we knew we were going to find out if we really knew what we were doing.

"Were we lucky (at SRU)? Was it a fluke? It was very difficult to leave that program and all of those young players, but the time was right to give this a shot," she added.

Vincent said she has no aspirations of coaching Division I basketball, though she's not ruling it out.

"People ask me all the time if I'm moving up," she said. "You don't move up, you move on. If I'm 85 years old when I retire and never coached a game in Division I, it won't mean I wasn't a successful coach.

"I'm one of three women's basketball coaches in the country to win a national championship this year. How do you move up from that?" she added.

Kearney admitted she might receive some coaching opportunities elsewhere herself, but said she won't jump at the first one.

"It would have to be a good fit," Kearney said. "I'm not going to force anything at all. I'm very happy right now."

California returns two double-digit scorers in guards Sara McKinney (17.8 ppg.) and Elite Eight MVP Storck (14.2 ppg.) McKinney scored 26 points in the championship game.

"Sara may be the best Division II player in the country," Vincent said. "We have to replace our inside game, and that won't be easy, but Erin Dillon (6-foot-2 forward) will be back.

"Erin averaged eight points a game last year. She's good enough to average 17 or 18. We didn't have enough basketballs to go around," the coach added.

California was the second-highest scoring team in Division II this season.

Vincent said it was because of the defense.

"Everybody played together and we got so many quick points the other way," she said. "I've come to appreciate how perfect everything has to be to pull off a season like this.

"You can't have any bad injuries. You can't have someone come down with the flu at the wrong time. Your players have to get along. This is the closest-knit team I've ever been a part of," she added.

Kearney said she was appreciative of the sacrifices players made along the way.

"All it takes is one stumble and you're out," Kearney said. "Everybody is all about doing whatever it takes to win here. I love that. Now we get to try to do it again."