[media-credit name=’MEGHAN CONLIN/Herald photo’ align=’alignright’ width=’336′][/media-credit]No. 14 for the Wisconsin women's basketball team has been a staple in the lineup for the last four years.

Senior Ashley Josephson started 16 games as a freshman, setting a Wisconsin freshman record hitting 47 percent from 3-point land. That was a sign of things to come as her sophomore campaign proved to be even better as she led the team in scoring at 12.3 points per game.

She once again led the Badgers in 3-point shooting, hitting 41 percent and managed to grab 3.6 rebounds at the two-guard position. Teams may have been caught off guard by her ability to shoot it from deep because it was not something the 5-foot-8 guard was known for.

"I did not even come into college as a 3-point shooter or anything, so it's kind of ironic that I got that, or that I have [the record] so far because I wasn't really known as a shooter or anything, so it's kind of cool," Josephson said.

Now, as her senior year comes to a close, she is in a familiar spot — leading the team in 3-point shooting and, with just three conference games left, she is still the all-time leading 3-point shooter in Wisconsin history at 39.3 percent for her career.

But the Onalaska, Wis., native had envisioned a better year as far as wins and losses. Wisconsin has struggled this year in close games and when they have had teams on the ropes, they have been unable to finish them off.

"Yeah, us seniors have had close games throughout our whole careers and its just very frustrating to us," Josephson said. "Especially our last game when we had a 14-point lead and just giving it up at the end of the game. But we've done a good job of keeping together and staying confident and just helping each other out when we're down. I mean, we're always there for each other even when we are going through the hard times."

The team currently stands at 9-16 overall but just 3-10 in Big Ten conference play. Josephson, one of four senior captains, knows she must keep her team together for them to have any chance of success.

That starts with teaching a young team how to compose themselves as students first.

"All of the seniors want to show [the underclassmen] that you need to be good student and you need to get the job done outside of basketball first before you can play on the court," Josephson said. "What we try to do is be good role models for them."

The four seniors have tried to install the foundation for a winning tradition in Madison and hope that is a legacy they can leave.

"I just want our seniors to be able to help out with rebuilding this program," Josephson said. "So we're on the right step to a winning program. That's what our goal was this season was to start that run and start that upper shift in the program."

Josephson has spent the last three years with head coach Lisa Stone, but actually had contact with her before she even came to Wisconsin.

"The funny thing is [Stone] recruited me to go to Drake when she was there and then I committed here to Wisconsin," Stone said. "And then the next year she came here, so that was kind of ironic. It's been fun and it's been interesting having two different coaches within a college career. So you see one type of coaching and then another and it was a complete opposite, pretty much."

But before she passes the torch on to the underclassmen she still feels there is unfinished business to tend to.

"We still have three home games and the Big Ten Tournament, so we're still trying to hope for all wins," Josephson said. "We just want to do the best we can and play hard every game and go out there and compete. I think our team is carrying a swagger now and like Coach Stone said."

"We're a team that nobody really wants to play," Stone said. "They know they are going to get a game and get a good game against us because we are going to work hard and play as hard as we can for 40 minutes."

Josephson's last home game will come in 11 days and she knows that will come up quickly. "Senior night is always an emotional night and I'm sure we will all shed some tears and things," she said. "But you just have to put that behind you during the game … after the game there will be lots of tears I'm sure because we've played basketball for our whole lives and now it's time to say goodbye."

But with those three conference games and the Big Ten Tournament still to play, Josephson hopes to delay that goodbye as long as possible.