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Printer-Friendly ModeCards say "It's anybody's game"
November 12, 2007 —
SVSU's women's basketball team understands that while they're not going to run an opponent out of the gym, their hard work and attention to detail might.
"We've focused on fundamentals and taking care of the details," women's head coach Vonnie Killmer said of her teams work in preparing for the coming season. "They'll have to work harder than other people. We aren't real big, we aren't real quick, but that doesn't stop other teams. If we out work and out think people, we're going to win a lot of games."
This season, Cardinals are looking to make their second straight appearance in the GLIAC tournament, and to improve upon last year's 11-16 (8-10) record.
"We're working on getting respect back to the women's basketball program," said junior guard Brittany Burns. "We want make sure everybody sees that we have some talent and we can go out there and compete in the GLIAC.
"Last year was a big stride for us, making the tournament," Burns continued. "But we made the tournament in last place. This year we really want to finish out second or third, which is our goal."
"Obviously, getting back to the tournament is our goal," Killmer said. "But this time we want a higher seed. We want to finish higher than we have in the past."
The team returns two of its top three scorers from last season; Burns, who averaged 10.9 points per game, and junior forward Latille Ross, who averaged 14 points per game and also chipped in 8.5 rebounds per game, making her the last season's top rebounder. The Cardinals will rely on both to pick up where they left off in 2007.
Despite returning some of last season's top performers, the team is short on size. To remedy this, the Cards have begun working a five man motion offense that coach Killmer thinks will give them an advantage over bigger opponents.
"We have a lot of kids that can play a lot of different positions. The five man motion allows us to do a number of things," Killmer said. "We can have our post players who are comfortable knocking down shots from outside out on the perimeter, and we can send some of our guards that can take people in the blocks and work the post a little bit, just to create some mismatches and give us a bit of an advantage. We're just trying to be that much more difficult to defend."
The Cards feel they have as good a chance as any team to finish well in the GLIAC.
"There is no real stand out this year. All the teams are real even," Burns said. We feel like we have a good shot to go out there and accomplish our goals this season."
Killmer agreed with her junior guard.
"We can beat any team on any given night in this league, but on the flip side, we can lose to anybody on any given night. It's going to be a matter of which team out works people. And that's why we've been harping so much on the work ethic."
The preseason GLIAC rankings have the Cards finishing sixth in the North Division. However, the girls don't seem to take much credence in the ranking, and like how they stack up against the rest of the league. Sophomore guard Stephanie Sills spoke for the rest of the team when she said the GLIAC is full of parody.
"In this league it's anybody's game."