Sports: Women’s Basketball
Yellowjackets Shoot for Return to Final Four
Last March, the women’s basketball team made its debut in the NCAA Division III Final Four and set a record for wins in a season. With four of five starters returning, the Yellowjackets are ready for another run at the national trophy because, team members say, just reaching the Final Four was not enough.
“We’re proud of our accomplishments, but not winning the tournament left a sour taste in our mouths,” says guard Tara Carrozzo ’04. “We want to win it all.”
Coach Jim Scheible says, “So far this year the team has been on cloud nine since the tournament. You never know what’s going to happen during the regular season, but I feel confident about where we are right now.”
Play-by-Play: Games on the Web
Yellowjacket fans with an Internet connection can follow the men’s and women’s basketball teams through the 2002–03 University Athletic Association season. Rochester radio station WYSL Radio–1040 AM plans to use the station’s Web site to broadcast all 14 games that the teams play against conference opponents. For more information, follow the link from the Rochester basketball pages at www. rochester.edu/living/athletics.
The Yellowjackets began in a good position to pick up where they left off last year. Captains Carrozza and First Team All-American guard Erika Smith ’04, as well as forward Kelly Wescott ’05 and forward/center Megan Fish ’05, were expected to return as starters. In addition, the team has 12 new players—11 freshmen and one transfer student from Washington State University.
Scheible says the team could very well do better this time around, because last year’s appearance in the tournament may have been a bit premature.
“We might have been a bit ahead of schedule—we got there and were the fourth best out of the Final Four. The good thing is that it gives you room for improvement, and that’s motivating for our players,” he says.
Fish agrees. “I don’t think we realized, when we were going through the tournament, how much we had accomplished. It was only when we came home last year that we knew how big it was. Last year, we weren’t taken seriously by a lot of teams—many thought our success was a fluke, especially in our league. This year we have come back having proven that we need to be taken seriously.”
“A consequence of this is that every team will give us their best game,” Smith says.“But we will be ready to face that challenge. As long as we keep our focus and work hard, I believe we can beat any team we face.”
Scheible says team members are ready to train, both physically and mentally, for a winning season and to play their best if they return to the Final Four.
“They’re not just assuming it’s going to happen,” he says. “They’re willing to put in the time. We were pretty solid last year, but we want to be stronger offensively, stay solid defensively. And rebounding is always key for us. But it’s more a mental approach than a physical approach. We want to eliminate all the variables.”
And that means being prepared to face the best in Division III once again, starting with the first team they beat in the Sweet Sixteen last year—Ithaca College—and being prepared to “never lose a game,” as Scheible says.
“From the time we start practicing, in mid-October, through the middle of November, we establish habits of excellence or mediocrity. And by the time we get a break, in the middle of December, we’ll have played six games—a quarter of the season,” he says. “Even when there are no games, the time is important, because how you practice is how you play.”
—Jayne Denker
