Womens basketball: ready for challenge

   The Norwich University Women's Basketball team is having a rebuilding year this season, according to their coach.

   With losing five seniors last year who helped build this team and who "between them averaged almost 70 percent of our points," said head coach Mark Zacher it will be a year to redefine this team.

   Though the team lost key players last year there is still optimism among the team "we have a big hole that we need to fill but it is definitely possible," said Christine Daniels 21, senior, criminal justice major, from Concord, Nh.

   "We lost a lot last year graduating five but I think the skill level is there, we just need to put it all together," said Kelsey Knapp, 20, junior, criminal justice major, from Brandon, Vt.

    Players are setting their own goals for themselves to improve on and off the court.

   "My goal is to work hard in practice and to get more playing time," Said Brittany Ramsey, 19, sophomore, criminal justice major, from Brunswick, Vt.

  "What I want to do is to improve my all around game and pretty much make my last year one of my best years. Also to do the little things," Daniels said.

     The team focus this year is "fundamentals and the team aspect of the game," Knapp said.

     "The focus of the team this year is to work together and work hard," Ramsey said.

   The team goals for this season are to "compete everyday and get better and better with each and every game possible," Zacher said.

    Four games have already been played on the women's schedule and though they have only won one of the games, they are improving every time they play.

   "The second half of each ball game we won and we played much much better," Zacher said.

   Christine Daniels with 33 points and Karissa Doyon with 51 points have already proven that they are scorers on the court.

   In practices the team is dedicating itself to "going over plays, situations that could happen, and how to guard people," Ramsey said.

  "We are practicing plays, how to defend, putting our main focus on defense," Daniels said about the team's practices.

  With having a number of juniors and seniors on the team it will help give the team "more leadership and knowledge of what to do," Knapp said.

   The schedule for this year's women's basketball team "is going to be a competitive schedule teams were picked with the goal of making us better," Zacher said of the first half of their non-conference schedule.

   In the second half of the season is where they begin to play teams from their conference which is in the Great Northeast Athletic Conference.

    "The conference schedule is always tough, there are some very good teams there," Zacher said.

   With only a few games into the season it is hard to tell how the team will finish this season but the players are setting their goals to do better.

   "I think it will be tough in the beginning but it will get better by the end," Ramsey said.

   The thoughts for a GNAC championship, though far away are always on the minds of the team.

   "I think that if we work hard from right now on I think we can do it," Daniels said.

  "This is our goal, we are definitely going to work as hard as we can every night to get there," Zacher said.