Last year, the women’s basketball team made nationals and finished in the top 32 of NCAA Division II play. This year, they’re jumping right into the fire — head coach Bruce Langford made sure that their opening non-conference games would challenge his team.
“We wanted to have as tough a schedule as we could,” said Langford.
After opening the season on the road against the Notre Dame de Namur Argonauts and the Academy of Art Urban Knights, the Clan will play their home opener against the Cal Poly Pomona Broncos, who were ranked first nationally in the pre-season rankings.
And it won’t get much easier when Great Northwest Athletic Conference (GNAC) play begins. The Clan will open up conference play at home against the Western Washington Vikings, who are a favourite to sit atop the conference, and finished second last year.
“They were the pre-season favourites in our conference to win, so we open up against the best right off the bat,” explained Langford. “They’re physical, they’re big, they have a couple of kids who really shoot the ball, they are very competitive, intensely competitive, so it will be a tough start too.”
The tough start is meant to get the Clan accustomed to a higher level of play from the get-go, elevating their level of play throughout the season. The team will need to do this in order to make nationals once again — their ultimate goal.
Although Langford admits that he doesn’t think the team is quite ready to win a national championship, he knows that the key is to make it and get in a position to win: “Our goal is to get to nationals and see what happens,” he said.
The coach hopes that the team can advance past the west region semifinal, where the Clan finished their season last year — he believes the mix of new and returning talent will help them achieve that goal.
“We are hoping to better that. We are excited about some of our incoming prospects, and we’re very happy with the people returning,” he said.
Erin Chambers, who led the team in scoring with 692 points and averaged 23.1 points per game last season, returns as one of the team’s two seniors. Chambers was named the GNAC preseason player of the year.
Katie Lowen, the other returning senior, is second in team scoring. Fellow returner Meg Wilson led the team in field goal percentage — the only Clan player able to notch a percentage over .500 at .612.
Although the team lost key senior players — including Marie-Line Petit, Rebecca Langmead, and Chelsea Reist — Langford is looking forward, not back. With the help of new players such as Ellen Kett, who plays on the point, and redshirt-freshman Elisa Homer, Langford hopes that this team will be better than last year’s.
“This season’s team will hopefully shoot the ball better as a whole than last year,” he explained. “I think that Ellen Kett and Elisa Homer are going to really add some shooting to our team this year. I think [returners] Ariana Sider and Alisha Roberts are both going to be able to hit some shots, so we have a good number of kids who can shoot the ball.”
The women’s basketball team opens at home against the Cal Poly Pomona Broncos on Sunday, November 23 at 1:00 p.m.
