The Chatham Women’s basketball team has been in the gym working diligently in preparation for the home opener against Penn State New Kensington on November 17.

With the five freshman playing major minutes the first two scrimmages, the team had a lot of inexperience on the court. But this did not seem to phase the young Cougar team. Lead by three seniors, the team clicked with one another.

The seniors feel that this year’s team has a lot of promise.

“Honestly I think this year we’re going to be really strong. We have a lot of good leaders on the team that we haven’t had in the past, we have some great players who bring all different things to the team, and we have the will to win that we haven’t had in the past,” said senior Chelsea Kovalcsik. “I think this year’s team is much better than the teams in the past.”

There were challenges in the scrimmages that were noticeable.

“Based on the scrimmages, I think our team really needs to work on boxing out. We’re a small team so fundamentals to rebounding are going to be extremely important,” said Rachel McClain, another senior.

Rebounding will be crucial in the success of the team. What they lack in size, they’ll need to make up for in fundamentals.

“Another area we need to work on is passing,” said McClain. “During the scrimmages, we had some weak passes that turned into points for the other team so it’s crucial that we sure this area up.”  

Although they have some areas of improvement, there are areas of strength.

“I think our biggest strength is that we really are great teammates to each other and we play because we want to be there.” Kovalcsik said.

Besides having to be fundamentally good, they have to be able to be good teammates too.

“We especially aren’t selfish when we’re playing,” said Kovalcsik. “We’re so good at looking for our players and playing off their strengths and weaknesses.”