An inside look into the women’s basketball team

Starting off to a great start, the women’s basketball team has won four out of the five games they played so far in the season. 

The first game of the new year took place at Cabrini University against DeSales University on Saturday, Jan. 4, 2020 at 1 p.m. Cabrini took home the win that afternoon with a final score of 69-62.  Their win this year solidified a 2-2 win-loss record for Cabrini against DeSales. This game was an important one for the Cabrini women since DeSales was ranked number 10 in the country. 

On Wednesday, Jan. 8, 2020 at 6 p.m., Cabrini played their second game of the new year at Neumann University in Aston, Pennsylvania. This game resulted in a 76-49 win for Cabrini. Since 2010, Cabrini has played 20 games against Neumann and won 17 out of the 20 games they played. 

The third university to go head-to-head against Cabrini was Marywood University, which took place at Cabrini on Saturday, Jan. 11, 2020 at 1 p.m. Before this game, Cabrini had three losses out of the four games against Marywood since the 2016 game in Scranton, Pennsylvania. Marywood won that game with a score of 60-49. Cabrini came back in January of 2019 with a 54-51 win. Then, in February of 2019, Cabrini lost two more games against Marywood. However, Cabrini brought home a win for their first 2020 game against Marywood with a final score of 76-67. 

In a match against Gwynedd University, Cabrini won with a final score of 104-77 during the 6 p.m. home game on Wednesday, Jan. 15, 2020. Since 2009, Cabrini and Gwynedd have gone head-to-head for 27 games so far and Cabrini has won 18 of those games, losing nine. This win was special since winning 104 points was the most they have won since 2015, which was a 103-33 win against Cairn University.

Finally, the most recent match that Cabrini has played was against College of Staten Island at Staten Island on Friday, Jan. 17, 2020 at 5:30 p.m. In this game, Cabrini lost with the final score being 70-77.

Coming back from the Winter break, the team has a positive outlook on their performance so far, as well as their goals moving forward in the season. 

“This season has been going pretty well so far. Right now we are 10-4 and undefeated in our conference. We’ve had a few big wins but we have also definitely lost a couple of games that we could have won,” Brianna Blair, junior forward, said. “I feel like our team has moved forward & learned from those losses though.”

“We have been playing very well as a team and our performance has been good and consistent.” freshman guard Hannah Fenstermacher said.

Coming off of the holidays, it’s easy for teams to lose their focus, but the Cavaliers have been sure to keep their heads in the right place.

“My mindset has stayed pretty much the same because we are all excited every single game and practice we have, we want to win and work together,” Abi Fricke, sophomore guard and forward, said. “ I think the team got super close over winter break and started playing like a whole. We are here to pick each other up on the bad days and lift each other higher on the great days.”

Fenstermacher put in her two cents about the team’s performance over winter break, saying, “We struggled at our tournament over winter break, however the rest of the games we won and played well as a team. It’s expected sometimes to struggle during this time because it’s basketball all the time, but we pulled through in the end.”

“The very start of the season is always focused on getting into the groove of our practice routine, learning all of our plays, and getting ourselves fit and prepared to play basketball. Then we shift gears to focus on our non-conference opponents, but now our mindset has shifted onto our Atlantic East Conference opponents and how we can win the conference this year.” Blair said. “Winter break is always fun because the only commitment that we have during that time is to play basketball. We don’t have the distractions of school and homework, so winter break is always a fun time to bond as a team.”

Although these teammates gave their own opinions on their performance throughout the season, they can all agree that their number one goal is to win in their conference and make it into the NCAA or ECAC tournament.