Midway into the 2011-2012 women’s varsity basketball season, the Lady Titans have amassed a record of 9-1. According to head coach Steve Weissenstein, the team’s early success is largely due to a veteran presence on the team.
“We have three starters who have been on varsity for three years, plus two girls who played a lot for us last year, so we have a lot of experience coming back,” Weissenstein said.
Weissenstein believes this experience plays a vital role in both games and practice.
“The girls are familiar with playing with each other, and can anticipate where they are going to be on the floor,” Weissenstein said. “In pressure situations, I don’t think [the pressure] will get them like it would to girls playing for the first time.”
The team also features extreme motivation to succeed, according to senior captain Colleen McDonagh. For McDonagh and company, their chemistry has proven to help them thus far.
“I think we’re all on the same page that we’re not just [on the team] to play and have fun,” McDonagh said. “We all have a goal to get really far [in the playoffs] this year.”
The team’s height is another asset, as they have six girls on the team that exceed six feet tall, according to senior captain Amelia Hummel. However, Hummel believes it is not just height, but the combination of that and athleticism, that causes the team to have success on both sides of the court.
According to Weissenstein, this advantage is most evident on the defensive side of the court, and he believes that opponents’ low scoring totals prove their defense’s worth.
“The biggest thing is they can get up and down the floor,” Weissenstein said. “It makes it harder [for opponents] to shoot the ball when they have to shoot over a taller person, and our girls have long arms and contest shots.”
Through the first three games, the defense held opponents to 25 percent shooting, and has since performed well defensively, according to Weissenstein.
On the offensive side of the ball, Weissenstein believes that the Lady Titans excel most in their versatility and ability to spread the ball around.
“We don’t really have a star […] So far our scoring has been really balanced, and all five of our starters have been in double figures in [at least] one of our games,” Weissenstein said. “Teams can’t concentrate on one player on our team because everyone’s capable of scoring.”
Coming off a season McDonagh says fell short of expectations, Hummel believes that the team can go far.
“We hope to make it to Super Sectionals, at least,” Hummel said.
While Weissenstein has confidence in his team, he believes that doing well in the CSL South will also be especially difficult this year.
“We’re just going to take it one day at a time,” Weissenstein said. “Our league is the best it’s ever been. Niles West has the best player in the country, New Trier has a girl who signed with Northwestern, and Maine South got third in state last year and has every girl back. Our conference is really hard, so we have to work hard at every practice.”
South topped New Trier 49-44 on Dec. 9, and then Niles North by a score of 46-42 on Dec. 13, improving their conference record to 3-0 and overall record to 9-1
