Tomorrow evening the Hillsdale College women’s basketball team will tip off their season
against St. Edwards University in Austin, Texas. It’s the first leg of a back-to-back in the heart of the Lone Star State.
“We’re looking forward to playing out there and attacking the challenge of playing two teams we don’t know very well,” head coach Claduette Charney said.
The team can’t wait to get back on the floor.
“It’ll be fun, just because we’ve been practicing against each other for so long now,” senior
Angela Bisaro said. “We’re looking forward to the competition down there, and we’ll be
playing some good teams, so we’re just hoping to see how it goes, obviously give it our all and get some wins.”
Following the two games in Austin, the Chargers will face off against Olivet College in an exhibition game on Nov. 12 at 7 p.m. Then the team will travel to Springfield, Ill. to take
on McKendree University and Illinois-Springfield, concluding their non-conference schedule.
As for conference play, Charney’s goal for the team is clear.
“We are obviously looking to win as many games as possible and reach the conference
tournament, first and foremost.”
The team has been working hard towards that goal coming into this season, especially emphasizing one particularly important thing: defense.
“We have to defend,” Charney said. “We have to defend and rebound, and we have to get better at it, every day.”
The players are fixed on improving defensively too.
“Coming together on defense and communicating is going to be huge for us,” Bisaro added. “We have so much talent on this team that if we can bring it together as a whole and really just be one
collective group we can do some really great things.”
Of course, playing well on the offensive side of the ball will be important too, and there’s no
doubt to whom the x-factor is: Junior Megan Fogt is coming off of a stellar sophomore year, in
which she was named Second-Team All-GLIAC.
“A lot of our offense revolves around what Megan [Fogt] does,” Charney said.
Still Fogt only wants to get better.
“A lot of my contributions to the team came from the block,” she said, “so this summer and this
preseason I’ve been working a lot on developing my outside game a little bit too.”
Charney also sees perimeter play as crucial for this season.
“Our perimeter shooting is going to be key, we return Marissa DeMott and Abbey Lovat, and
both those players, especially Marissa being a senior, help spread things out, have a good ability going to the basket and shooting from the perimeter, so we’re looking for our perimeter game to be a lot better this year than it was last year,” she said.
There’s no doubt that the Chargers have the potential to make it to the conference tournament, but it’ll take improved defensive play and a well-executed offense. The Chargers hope those things will be on full display tomorrow night and throughout the season.
