Sports

Cabrini squeaks by Garnet basketball in season-opening match

Cabrini-squeaks-by-garnet-basketball-in-season-opening-match

Hena Choi | Phoenix Staff

Kathryn Stockbower eyes an opening in Cabrini’s defense.

In print | November 13, 2008

The women’s basketball team took the court for the first time this Monday in a season-opening scrimmage against area powerhouse Cabrini College. The Garnet, who finished the 2007 season with a record of 8-16, dropped the early season match by a score of 62-64. Yet despite the loss, the scrimmage proves to be a good omen for this year’s squad.

Cabrini finished last season at 21-7 on the way to winning the Pennsylvania Athletic Conference Championship and a berth in the NCAA tournament. In the same scrimmage last year, Cabrini outscored Swarthmore by over 25 points. This year, that margin was cut to only 2. The Garnet returns first-team All-Centennial Conference selection Kathryn Stockbower ’11 this year. Stockbower, who was also named the ECAC South Region Co-Rookie of the Year, led the conference in rebounds last winter, and was top-five in points scored. The team will turn to co-captains Melissa Grigsby ’09 and Pamela Costello ’10 for leadership. Other returnees include Amber Wantman ’10, back on the roster after not playing last year, and a trio of capable sophomores, Ceylan Bodur ’11, Sarah Brajtbord ’11 and Summer Miller-Walfish ’11. The remainder of the squad is composed of four newcomers – Christina Duron ’12, Genny Pezzola ’12, Nicole Rizzo ’12 and Brittany Schmelz ’12.

Grigsby, affectionately known as “Grigs” by her teammates, looks forward to making big improvements this season. “We are already a much faster team [than we were last year],” she said, noting that “we can transition a lot, and we’ve got that high-powered offense. And I think we have a lot more depth this year.” The lone senior on the squad, Grigsby looks to facilitate a smooth transition of the four first-years as well. “It is a young team, but the sophomore class has a lot of experience,” she said of the talented class of 2011, headed by the standout Stockbower. Grigsby also indicated confidence in the team’s preparation for the season, noting that “we have been working really hard and are learning how to play with each other. It’s been pretty easy to create this team chemistry.” Rizzo, who was first off the bench in Monday’s scrimmage, is one of four fresh faces that could help revitalize the women this year. “It was an encouraging scrimmage,” Rizzo said. “Cabrini had won their conference [championship] last year, and we stayed with them the entire time. Now we have two weeks to fine tune our offense and defense [before officially opening the season].”

Miller-Walfish cites the striking difference in the scores of this year’s scrimmage and last year’s scrimmage as a step in the right direction for the Garnet. “We had lost to them by almost 30 last year, so it was good,” she said of nearly matching the Cavaliers this week. Miller-Walfish, who set a Swarthmore record for most shots blocked last season, noted that she is “excited” about integrating a solid freshman class into the mix. “We are going to be better this year,” she said about the team, which is comprised of only three juniors and seniors. Rizzo agreed, looking to capitalize on the opportunity to achieve a “team goal to make the Centennial Conference playoffs, which is doable.”

The Garnet looks ahead to November 22, when it will host the annual Swarthmore Tip-Off Tournament throughout the weekend. Swarthmore will open the season against Wesleyan University at 6:00 pm that Saturday, and will aim to come out on top of the four-team field, which also includes the University of Mary Washington and Alvernia College. Swarthmore fell to Middlebury College in the finals of the tournament last year. Swarthmore will open Centennial Conference play when it travels to McDaniel on December 2. The Garnet will look for a repeat performance of the 86-79 victory against the Green Terror at home last year.