Last year the Gusties finished with a 63-60 loss to St. Thomas and ended up sharing the MIAC Championship title.
According to Senior Brittany Holm, this requires some changes to be made this year.
“We were one of the top defensive teams in the conference, but there’s always room for improvement. Also, rebounding can be greatly improved. We may not have ‘redwood-type’ post players that other teams have, but we do have athleticism and quickness that I think we can utilize to grab some boards,” Holm said.
Junior guard Ava Perry also agrees that this year will be different from last year.
“I know that this year one of our main goals is to definitely be MIAC Champs again, except this year we don’t want to share the title like we did last year,” Perry said.
However, winning the MIAC is not the only goal the women have this year, according to Junior guard Colleen Ruane. The women have hopes of advancing to playoffs this year, as well as winning the MIAC. Although winning the MIAC and making it to the playoffs might seem like a daunting task so early in the season.
The women are more than ready to take on the challenge, even though they lost four senior starters last year. “We have high expectations for ourselves. Even though we lost four strong seniors, we still expect to play hard and win the MIAC,” Ruane said.
Other teammates feel just as strongly as Ruane does about coping with the loss of last year’s seniors. Senior Brittany Holm is excited about this season despite the loss of four key starters. “Although we lost four senior starters, we have a young, energetic, athletic group of players ready and willing to fill those shoes. Expect us to run the floor more and pressure the ball due to our depth. We have players who had some experience last year, and with this season, will hone their skills and become even better,” Holm said.
Even though the Gusties have more depth to their roster than last year, they still have to face their greatest opponent, St. Thomas. Holm feels the team is ready to take on the challenge.
“St. Thomas ended our season last year, and they didn’t lose many players. I’m looking forward to playing them and getting some revenge,” Holm said.
Although beating St. Thomas is a while from now, the women know what they have to do in order to overcome great obstacles. “As a team, we need to make sure that we play two strong 20 minute halves. I know last year sometimes we would play very hard for one half, but then our second half wouldn’t be very strong. Sometimes it allowed our competitors to gain on us,” Perry said.
With such a long road ahead of them, the Gusties are taking this year with a positive approach. “I have never seen a team come together so fast—it makes the season even better,” Holm said.