Not done yet
Panthers not satisfied with Atlantic championship as they prepare for first nationals since 1998
Returning from Halifax was never as much fun as it was Sunday for Karla Yepez and her Atlantic University Sport (AUS) champion UPEI Panther teammates. “The last three years, we came back on the bus heartbroken,” she said before Monday’s women’s basketball practice.
Returning from Halifax was never as much fun as it was Sunday for Karla Yepez and her Atlantic University Sport (AUS) champion UPEI Panther teammates.
“The last three years, we came back on the bus heartbroken,” she said before Monday’s women's basketball practice. “Now we are very happy and very ready to face this new challenge that we get to play on Thursday. … I feel like nobody is satisfied. We’re all willing to keep working and willing to make something special on Thursday.”
The Panthers play the Ryerson Rams in Ottawa in Thursday’s U Sports quarterfinal. Game time is 2 p.m. Atlantic. The Rams are coached by former Panthers’ bench boss Carly Clarke.
Ryerson hosted the nationals a year ago and spent the entire 2019-20 season in the national rankings, getting as high as No. 2. They lost the Ontario championship to the Brock Badgers.
“They’re a great team, but the goal is to win,” said fourth-year guard Jenna Mae Ellsworth, a Charlottetown native who attended Panthers camp when Clarke was the coach.
A lot was expected of the Panthers this season, and they didn't disappoint.
They finished first in the AUS regular season with a 17-3 record, defeated UNB 73-60 in Saturday’s semifinal and closed out Sunday’s championship game on a
16-0 run to defeat the twotime defending champion Acadia Axewomen 78-59.
It is the team’s sixth conference title and first since 1998.
“We finally can say we’re AUS champions,” said Yepez, one of the core players in her fourth year with the team. “We don't realize yet how … important it is, (what) we just accomplished …
“Whenever we come back in 20 years, we’re going to see one of those banners and that will be the year we were here and we won it,” she added. “It means the world to me.”
The Panthers lost 88-84 to the Axewomen in last year’s semifinal when Haley McDonald went for a recordbreaking 51 points.
Yepez said they didn’t let that define who they are as a team.
They started working hard in the summer in order to get better and be prepared for this year’s opportunity. And when injuries struck the team during the season, their intestinal fortitude shone through.
They kept on winning. When the game got tight Sunday, they were ready for the opportunity and rose to the occasion.
“We became more resilient because of those things that happened to us throughout the season,” Yepez said.
And while it has been a remarkable run for a team that has been building towards this for years, the story is not complete.
“We know that we have potential,” Yepez said.
“We know that we could have a good weekend coming up here and make a bit more history. I know we already kind of wrote our chapter here at UPEI, but I don't think anybody is going to be surprised if we do well at nationals, too.”