LANCERS AIMING MUCH HIGHER
Women’s basketball squad begins to gel as last year’s rookies become seasoned
After bringing in eight freshmen a year ago, the University of Windsor Lancers women’s basketball team is expecting to take a major step forward this season. The Lancers, who have another three freshmen on this year’s roster, return to the St. Denis Centre on Friday when the club plays its OUA home opener against the York Lions. Game time is 6 p.m.
“It’s just building on what we established last year,” secondyear point guard Eve Uwayesu said. “By February, I think we’ll be a very hard team to beat.” The Lancers split a pair of road games to start the season, but head coach Emma Duinker, who is filling in this season for Chantal Vallee while she is on sabbatical, said there is still work to do. “There are pieces to work on, but I see a group that wants to win, and wants to work hard together and do whatever’s needed to accomplish that,” Duinker said.
“We have the potential to be an extremely hard-working crew. They’re learning how to do that consistently together and once they do that we’ll be a force to be reckoned with for sure.” Duinker has gone 11 players deep in both games to start the season and one of her biggest challenges will be juggling talent. “It’s exciting as a coach,” Duinker said. “It can be challenging as well because you’ve got a lot of kids that have a lot of different strengths, so it’s about figuring how you put it together. “It’s like a puzzle, each piece has kind of a unique fit. You have to find the best collection of kids that complement each other. Trying to figure out who comes off the bench well and when to put them in. We’re working through that.” Fifth-year senior guard Carly Steer won a national championship as a freshman and wants to help this young group move in that direction this season, but knows it takes sacrifice.
“It’s exciting to be able to see where you’ve come from at the beginning to the end,” said Steer, who is a Holy Names high school product. “Now, to be a leader and to help the younger players be successful, get to OUA finals, nationals and experience what I experienced my first year.
“It was a huge learning experience for everyone to understand their role. If you have a twominute shift or play 30 minutes a game, you have a role to play and you make a difference.” Steer has been a spark off the bench for the Lancers for years, but has started the first two games and Duinker knows others must accept that challenge as well. “It’s our understanding of a team and the bigger perspective,” Duinker said. “They’re all here because they want to win as a team and that’s the only way you can accomplish it. We talk a lot about getting rid of the individual desire for this and that. “The individual desire needs to come to the team. Everyone has a role to play. Whether it be you’re going to play two minutes, but we’re going to use every second of your two minutes to make us better as a team.”
There is size, there is speed and there is plenty of individual talent with this Windsor group and Duinker knows with time the team will only get better.
“It was a big transition from last year to this year because we had eight rookies last year,” Duinker said. “That year, in itself, was a huge growing year. Now, it’s a bit different because those rookies are no longer rookies. They understand the culture and they know the culture. “We’re in the time period of growth. For me, as long as we’re getting better in some aspect each game, we’re on the right track.”