If Saturday’s Fairfield women’s basketball intra-squad scrimmage was any indication as to how the team will play this season, then Stags fans should start getting prepared for many exciting games.
Shireyll Moore ’09 scored a game-high 11 points for the white team, which defeated the red team 34-27 at Alumni Hall. Candice Lindsay ’07 led the way for the red team with nine points and eight rebounds.
“This was only our second practice as a team this season,” said Lindsay, “so overall I think it went very well.”
Head Coach Diane Nolan, entering her 27th season at Fairfield, also sees promise.
“Overall I was pleased,” she said. “This team is collectively younger, quicker and more athletic than any team we’ve had in a long time.”
Each team started the game with three guards on the floor. Both teams attempted to employ an up-tempo style of play during the contest. There were frequent slashes to the hoop by Sabra Wrice ’08 and Meka Werts ’08. The Stags showed the ability to finish plays well, with numerous lay-ups by Baendu Lowenthal ’09 and Stephanie Ryan ’08.
Youth was certainly on display, as all nine of Fairfield’s freshman and sophomore players saw significant playing time. Because of the effectiveness of sharpshooters Lauren Groom ’09 and Jill Fiascki ’09, who combined to shoot 2-for-4 from the field, the future looks very bright for the Stags.
“We are always going to look to run the ball up the floor,” said Nolan. “Even though we are quick and talented on offense, our success this year will be judged by our need to concentrate on team defense.”
The Stags plan to apply pressure in the backcourt to many teams. Nolan said that 2-2-1 and 1-3-1 presses will be among the most common.
Defense will certainly be a key to stopping big-time non-conference opponents such as Villanova and Duke, two potential top-25 teams.
The Stags will travel to Durham to play the Blue Devils in the second game of their season (Nov. 22). Villanova will host Fairfield in Jan 3.
However, tough as these games may potentially be, the Stags welcome the challenges ahead of them.
“I feel like if we play teams that are ‘better’ than us, it just brings our level of competition up a notch,” said Lindsay. “We will then get better as a result.”
Fairfield will look to get better before the start of the regular season with a scrimmage at home Nov. 4 against American International and at Southern Connecticut Nov. 10.
The Stags’ season-opener is scheduled to for Nov. 18 at the Arena at Harbor Yard. against Brown.
A key sub-plot to the season will be Nolan’s quest for 500 career wins. She enters the season with 492, and is already first on the all-time Fairfield wins list. If the Stags play .500 basketball, she would reach that milestone some time in January.
But with four returning starters from last year’s team, which reached the MAAC semi-finals, the hope in Stag-town is that the team will play winning basketball right out of the gate, and that their coach will reach the milestone even earlier.
The next step, of course, is to reach the NCAA tournament, which the Stags have not done since 2001.
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