The Elizabethtown College varsity women’s basketball team had two consecutive victories earlier last week against Lycoming College and Arcadia University.
On Jan. 25, the women were able to conquer Lycoming in a close game that ran into overtime with a final score of 72-70. First-year Taylor Kreider gave the Blue Jays the overtime win with a steal and layup in the last two seconds. Kreider also notched her sixth double-double of the season with her 24 points and 10 rebounds.
On Jan. 28, the game took place at home where the team faced Arcadia for the second time this season, defeating them again by 11 points with a final score of 73-62. The game was a nail-biter with the Blue Jays not starting off strong. Arcadia was in the lead at the end of the first half. Despite the score, Etown was extremely focused and attentive. The team displayed good teamwork and communication with one another throughout the entire game.
During the second half, the Blue Jays had an amazing turn around. The team was able to catch up with the help of one Kreider, who scored an astonishing 29 points for the Blue Jays. Because of her excellent play, Kreider has been selected as the Commonwealth Conference’s women’s basketball player of the week. The conference applauded her statistics – she averaged 26.5 points and 9.5 rebounds in the games against Lycoming and Arcadia.
Prior to last Saturday’s game, the women were well aware that they couldn’t expect to defeat Arcadia again just because they had done so earlier in the season. Etown learned from the past game facing these opponents and planned to apply the knowledge to this game.
“Well, I know they had a few of their girls hurt in that game, so I think it is going to be a little bit of a different game this time around. We just know that we can’t expect to go out there and win; we need to just play our normal game and play like it is any other team in the conference, and we need to win,” first-year guard Marissa Ferris stated.
The women are facing all conference opponents now, and due to all of their wins so far in this season, the team is confident they will make it to playoffs.
“The last I looked, we were tied for second in the conference, which I think may have changed since we lost to LVC, but it’s the top four teams in the conference who make playoffs, so I think our chances are pretty good as long as we keep winning like we have been,” Ferris said reassuringly.
The team has come a long way since the beginning of the season and has made improvements in its game. “Well, we obviously improved defensively, playing really good defense, and that is what’s winning games for us. But I think also our shooting percentage has gone up quite a bit too, and so I’d say that’s helped us a lot,” Head Coach Yvonne Kauffman said proudly.
The women’s spirits remained high, and they were able to accomplish their goal of winning last week’s games. Support the team at their next game this Saturday at 2 p.m. against Albright.
