Women open with loss to Danville CC
By Erica Granados
IV Leader Sports Editor, Nov. 13, 2003
The women’s basketball team started out this year’s season with a loss of 80-56, against Danville. Leading scores for this game were sophomores, Jonell Yaklich, who contributed 20 points, snd Katie Yedinak who scored 14 points.
Coach Steve Crick said the strong point of this year’s team is the shooting even though the women did not do that well in the Nov. 4 loss.
“Even though we did not shoot well in our first game, I think really during the season that will be one of our strongest points throughout the coarse of the season,” Crick said.
One of the team’s main concerns is its depth because of the number of players. Currently, the women have eight healthy players out of the total 10, until next semester when they are able to return the two injured players.
Crick said, “Until then we have a thin bench and a very short team. We are unable to rebound with big teams.”
Due to the fact that a majority of the team includes new recruits, the players are going to be nervous for the first couple games, Crick said. Other than being nervous, they also need to win a few of the first games to help build confidence.
Crick said, “The first semester we are playing a very difficult non-conference schedule. I think almost every game is going to be difficult, but I think we can use whatever that experience gives us. We’re going to win some games and lose games. I think once the second semester starts, we’ll be in our conference, which typically has been our conference schools and typically has not been as strong as all these non-conference teams. I think we will show a lot of success next semester.”
The women will be playing an away game at Parkland, which was the No. 1 team last year in the nation, on Nov. 18. Crick says the Parkland game will be a tough contest because last year Parkland’s record was 30-3.
The Lady Eagles are bracing themselves and know their hands are going to be full, he said.