University of Richmond Athletics
A Players' Perspective
02/16/2004 | Women's Basketball
Feb. 16, 2004
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. It's A Players' Perspective ...
Week 15...
After coming off of last week's lost against George Washington, I knew that we'd be in for a long week ahead of us. I had two big midterms to take on Friday, and believe me, the last thing I want to be thinking about after a loss and before a two-game weekend, is schoolwork. Normally, every college student, including myself would have crammed the Thursday night right before the test, but staying up extremely late to study for a test was not something I wanted to do, so instead I studied a lot throughout the week, and although I may have had miserable nights of studying throughout the week, it allowed to get some good rest before Friday night's game against Dayton. We came into the Dayton game with fire in our eyes. Sure, we didn't jump out to an early lead from tip-off, but there was consistent intensity on the defensive end of the court which allowed us to extend our lead throughout the first half. We went into the locker room at halftime with a good lead of about 20, but it didn't stop there. We came out after halftime and started where we had left off the first half. Going into the locker room after that game was one of the best feelings we've felt in a while now. After the game, I went back to my room ready to get to bed. I was exhausted not only from the game, but from all the thinking that I had to do in my two tests that day. Before going to bed Friday night, while still relishing on that night's win, I was already thinking ahead to Xavier, our Sunday afternoon opponents. A win against them was so necessary as well. Xavier came off a close loss at GW on Friday night after which I'm sure they were very upset about. We were ready to hand them their second loss of their short road trip. Coach Boyle keeps reiterating the importance of every single conference game that we play now, and it's not to put more pressure on us, it's more to motivate us. Against Xavier, she made us aware that they too are in the race for second place in the Western Division of the A-10, and that a win against them could separate us momentarily from them. I think everyone on the team realized the importance of that game, and we all really took it to heart. Sunday afternoon, we matched, if not exceeded, the amount of intensity and confidence that we had on Friday night. Knowing that Xavier has a very solid cast, we came out and tried to pressure them defensively and force them into making poor decisions. We probably played one of our best games this season. It wasn't because we made every shot or didn't have any turnovers; it was because we all truly played together. When people came into the game off the bench, there weren't any let downs, we were all on the same page for the majority of the game. We forced Xavier into playing out of their comfort zone. I think it's safe to say that we're out of our slump, and back to Richmond Women's Basketball. I think it's also safe to say, that it's time for me to use Monday's day off as a day to prepare for two more tests on Tuesday morning. Oh the joys of being a student-athlete. Thursday we'll be playing at Fordham where if you ask any of the juniors or seniors, they'll cringe when you mention their first conference game there against the Rams two years ago. Apparently they played probably their worst game there, so they'll all be ready to redeem themselves on Thursday.
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