Plowing through their season with 11 straight victories so far, the women’s basketball team can’t be anything but optimistic about its upcoming SSC tournament, which begins on March 5. If there is one thing that can be learned from its season thus far, it is that there is nothing more important than good sportsmanship towards your team.
The key to the team’s recent success and hopefully to its further success in the tournament is not the strength and skill set of one individual player but rather the collective proficiency of the team as a whole.
“The depth of our team has really shined through,” said Assistant Coach Kaitlyn Mitryk. “We have a lot of girls that contribute to our success. There’s not just one star. Everyone basically averages the same amount of points. It’s easy for opposing teams to stop one kid, but it’s much harder to stop an entire team.”
In the team’s most recent match against Eckerd College on Feb. 19, defense proved to be the force to be reckoned with.
“The game against Eckerd was one of the best defensive games we’ve played all season,” said senior point guard Shamika Williams. “We held them to only 11 points at halftime.”
Alternatively, the match against Rollins College on Feb. 5 showcased the team’s impressive offense.
“Personally, I always want to make more assists to try and make my teammates better,” Williams said. “Rollins at Rollins’ [arena] was a great game for us. We came out and smacked them in the mouth right from the start.”
Maintaining a great relationship on and off the court is imperative for creating a successful team. In order to do this, the players participate in team bonding activities whenever they get the chance.
“We sing together, we dance together, we eat together,” said junior center Aisha Rodney said. “We have a few top secret rituals that we do before every game, too. And on the court, we feed off one another.
If one of us is doing well, we all do well.” That is the name of the game for the Spartans: teamwork. One great player does not make a team, and it certainly doesn’t
win games.
“Our players do a really good job of playing together and sacrificing for the greater good of the team,” Mitryk said. “We do have a lot of individual stars, but they don’t play as individuals; everyone contributes.”
As far as the SSC tournament goes, both the players and coaches are expecting nothing but success.
“With the depth that we have on this team, it’s going to be hard for other teams to stop our top five players,” Williams said. “Even our bench is a huge part of our success.”
The only concern for the tournament is the amount of endurance that comes with playing back to back games.
“We expect to be very competitive,” Mitryk said. “Playing back to back games is a concern because it’s exhausting, but we’ve been peaking at the right time so hopefully that shines through in our games.”
Tess Sheets can be reached at tess.sheets@spartans.ut.edu.