University of Richmond Athletics
A Players' Perspective
01/14/2004 | Women's Basketball
January 14, 2004
Editor's Note...The Spiders' women's basketball team enjoyed a record-breaking 21-11 season in 2002-03, which included two wins in the NIT - the first postseason victories in the program's history. Sophomore guard Araceli Gil was an intregal part of the team's success - earning Atlantic 10 All-Rookie team honors. She was one of three Spiders to play in every game, and capped her freshman season with a career-high-tying 17 points in an NIT victory over Georgetown.
How do the Spiders prepare to build upon last year's success? Araceli's weekly diary will provide some answers as she takes us to the weight room, the track, the dining hall, the campus, and finally - the court - with several other stops along the way. |
Week 12...
What a way to end and begin 2004. After our Miami loss, we were all given a 4-day break to go home to our families. We all arrived on campus the day after Christmas for a welcome back lift and practice. We prepared for our upcoming William and Mary rivalry game. Fortunately we prepared well enough to come up with a 29-point victory. Our last game of 2003 was on New Year's Eve against VCU for the city championship game. In a cross-town rival game emotions run high, and we knew our biggest preparation would have to come before stepping out onto the court. After applying intense defensive pressure for most of the game, we were able to defend our city championship trophy.
That night, we all went to Kate Flavin's apartment where we had all brought something to snack on and enjoyed a competitive game of Cranium. Seeing as we were the only ones who were on campus, until the men's team arrived from their Colorado trip at about 1 A.M., we all went to bed shortly after the New Year had arrived.
On New Year's Day we all gathered at Coach Boyle's house to celebrate our annual Holiday party where our "Secret Santa" gift exchange took place. Early in the month of December we each chose a name out of a hat. Whoever each person chose was supposed to maintain a secret, and slyly give surprise gifts to our designated person. Our final gift exchange consisted of more meaningful gifts. Our graduate-assistant Elizabeth was my Secret Santa and she gave me some pretty funny gifts. First, she gave me pajama pants with Chili Peppers all over it, and that's because I always like hot peppers on my food when we eat out at restaurants. She also gave me my own bottle of hot sauce, and a collection of Spiderman goods: gloves, fruit snacks, foaming body soap, and a bag full of chocolates. I made out leaving Coach Boyle's house that night. We all left back to campus to pack up for our Ohio road trip and most importantly A-10 commencement.
Our first stop was in Dayton where we started out the game a little scattered. I, personally, was feeling a little under the weather that day, but I felt well enough to play in the game. No one was going to sit out for our first A-10 game of the season. A-10 is the second half of the season where each game we play will eventually come and either help us or haunt us at the end of the season when it comes to the A-10 Championship and conference rankings. The upperclassmen understand the importance of every single game from now on, and Coach Boyle tried to emphasize to the freshman the fire and passion necessary to play each game from now until the end of our season. Although we had a rocky first half, we were able to play smarter defense in the second half, which inevitably led to better offensive execution on the other end of the floor. After the victory we left Dayton and headed to Cincinnati for our second challenge of the new year.
Xavier was a tougher team to win against. We started off with a full court pressure, which caused their guards to turn the ball over several times, leading us to easy buckets. But then Xavier made a few runs and started giving us a game. Unfortunately for us, they gave us too good of a game. We were up by 3 points with about 10 seconds left in regulation. They pushed the ball down the floor and one of their guards hit a 3-pointer right in my face with less than 2 seconds to go in regulation. We threw up a desperation shot and missed, forcing us to take an overtime win. Saona went nuts in the overtime session scoring 11 of our 13 points in the 5-minute overtime period. Most importantly she converted on several free throw attempts to secure the overtime win. Next we ran into the locker room and had 5 minutes to shower up and change before we had to get on the bus in order to catch our flight leaving Cincinnati that night.
Now we will arrive for our game against Rhode Island. I can speak for last years players when I say that we lost an ugly game at URI last year, and we are ready to redeem ourselves.
