The three seniors on the women’s basketball team have one goal every time they take the court: to win.
While Sabra Wrice can be penciled into the lineup for every game, both Stephanie Cziria and Meka Werts have accepted lesser roles to help the team win.
“I don’t care if I don’t play a single minute if we come out with a ‘W,'” said Werts. “I try to come in and do whatever Coach [Frager] asks me to or whatever I can.”
Werts scored 21 points with a career-high five three-pointers on Senior Day and led the team with 12 points in a win against Siena on Saturday.
“I wanted to come out and get a victory for the rest of the seniors,” said Werts.
In her career, she has scored 718 points and pulled in 290 rebounds, while also coming up with 150 steals.
“It’s really unselfish for a senior to do what I’ve asked her to do,” said Head Coach Joe Frager. “She gets upset at me when I take her out. She just wants to win; she’s a competitor. She comes off the bench and gives us a spark on both ends; she’s like an energizer bunny.”
Cziria was named a co-captain this season and frequently leaps from the bench to offer encouragement to her teammates. She has provided added depth to the Stags’ frontcourt, especially since Stephanie Geehan ’10 has missed the past eight games due to an illness.
She is one of the more vocal leaders on the team and has accepted her reduced role for the team.
“We’ve become a family, on and off the court,” said Cziria. “We play as a team on the court, but there is also a team unity off the court.”
Cziria has scored 334 points and grabbed 206 rebounds in her Fairfield career.
“Yes, everything is for them,” said Baendu Lowenthal ’09, who scored 26 points, including two free throws, to seal the win on Senior Day. “We were all focused from the start. Everyone on the team wanted to win for the seniors.”
Wrice, the third senior on the team, has had an impressive career at Fairfield. She has scored 1,504 points, which is ninth all-time in program history. She has 211 steals, 210 assists and 500 rebounds. She also holds the single-game record for points with 36.
“We want to win every game,” said Wrice. “But it was Senior Night, and we did lose to them before. We showed them this is the team that is playing the rest of the year.”
To close out the MAAC regular season, the Stags will play three games on the road against Manhattan, Siena and Loyola. Frager said that the end of the season gets tough.
“We could lose all three or win all three,” he said.
Fairfield is currently in third place in the MAAC, with a 9-6 record. While Marist has clinched first with a perfect 15-0 conference record, Fairfield is only a half game behind No. 2 Iona, who boasts a 9-5 conference record.
If the Stags can lock up second place, they would avoid Marist until the conference finals and increase their chances of a post-season berth.
However, Fairfield is content to take the season one game at a time.
“We just want to get to the next game,” said Wrice.
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