The Lehigh women’s basketball roster will be without 2014-15 top contributors Katie O’Reilly, ’15, and Sarah Williams, ’15. However, this year’s roster is led by four hungry seniors who are ready to win the conference championship.
Last year, the Lehigh women’s basketball team battled all the way to the Patriot League championship only to fall short to American University 66-50.
Last year’s success will serve as motivation in this year’s campaign, as now the players know what it takes to make it to a title game.
“We want to win the regular season championship to put ourselves in a position to win the tournament championship,” coach Sue Troyan said. “That is the big picture. The day-by-day goal is preparing ourselves for each game. Taking one game at a time to grow and develop to play our best basketball in February.”
The team had a successful campaign last year, finishing with a 19-12 record. The team was dominated by the 15 underclassmen on its roster, 13 of which will be returning this year.
Over the summer, the team took a trip to France and Italy to improve its game. The team had 10 practices and three games while on the trip. They went 1-2 against competition that consisted of a French semi-pro team, an Italian club team and the Cameroon national team.
“It really brought us closer as a team, developing lots of team chemistry,” freshman guard Hailey Pascoe said.
In addition to team bonding, the trip gave younger players a chance to gain experience on the court that they had not yet fully developed. The trip gave the team energy, excitement and high expectations going into the season. Now the Mountain Hawks are eager for game competition to start, as they’ve had five weeks of practice.
According to players on the team, the game strategy will be to play through the post, distributing the ball evenly across the court. Not relying on one player will make it more difficult for other teams to defend, since Lehigh will have multiple weapons capable of scoring on the court.
Lehigh’s top threats include senior co-captain forwards Kerry Kinek and Elizabeth Sharlow to man the post with junior forward Lexi Martins. Sophomore guard Quinci Mann and junior guard Kayla Burton will provide different dimensions on the court, giving Lehigh multiple options come game time.
Kinek and Sharlow are expected to provide great leadership for the Mountain Hawks.
“We are trying to do our best to make sure that everybody is on the same page,” Kinek said. “We have good chemistry, allowing us to get off to a good start when we play non-Patriot League teams and carry the momentum over to the Patriot League, staying consistent throughout the year — making sure everybody has confidence in themselves and the team.”
The team is slated to play its first regular season game at Stabler Arena against Monmouth University on Nov. 13.
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