Sean Kucharski ‘19
Staff Writer
When you talk about doing damage, you aren’t talking about the Red Sox on the campus of Merrimack College. You’re talking about the Merrimack College Women’s Basketball team.
The Women’s Basketball team is on a mission this year, and they are hungry to finally get back on top of the Northeast 10 conference. Their record may be 0-2 in NE-10 play, but the intensity is right there. Both games were extremely close and finished within just four points.
No team can succeed without all first being on the same page.
“Our game by game goals never change. Our game by game goal is to execute the game plan that our coaching staff puts together and play Merrimack basketball for every second we put on our jerseys,” said captain Karlee Alves. “Our season goals are to win the regular season and conference championship and hopefully make a good run in the NCAA tournament. I feel like everybody’s goal should be to win the national championship. You have to have championship mentality in order to be great.”
When it comes to addressing the problems and struggles the team has had so far, Alves is fairly confident the team could very easily bounce back and make their goals.
“After a slow start to the NE-10, we as a team know we have to be better both individually and collectively. We know we have to approach each practice with the mindset of getting better for ourselves, our teammates, our coaching staff and the college,” said Alves. “We pride ourselves on being able to play the game that we love while also representing Merrimack as well. We plan on turning our slow start around by all 12 of us buying into what our team needs and everybody doing their job, and being the best at doing so.”
The Warriors are ready to turn this season around, and make that early season push to clinch a spot in the NE-10 playoffs as early as possible.
With only the top-five teams making the playoffs, the Warriors find themselves in a bit of a hole to start the year. Even with this slow start, they continue to find something to drive them every step of the way.
“I honestly think what drives our team to be the best we can be and play as hard as we do is simply the fact that we love what we do and we have faith in our coaching staff to put us into positions to be the best we can be. We all have that trust in each other and we all consider each other family. It’s easy when you look at your family wearing the same jersey and give your all for them because you know they will do the same exact thing for you. It’s a mutual respect thing and it’s just the togetherness we share inside of our locker room whether it’s coaches or athletes we all want to see each other be great and continue to strive for this championship as a full forced unit.”
Merrimack is driven and looking to “do damage” as time goes on. With sophomore redshirt Giulia Orlando coming back soon, and Merrimack’s leading scorers beginning to find their stroke again, these next new few games will be fun to watch.
