On Saturday, Capital University Women’s basketball team took its ninth win in a row against 11th-ranked conference rival Ohio Northern University with a final score of 58-45.
With this win, the women’s basketball team improved their overall record to 15-2, along with an 8-2 conference record.
“The last three years, [the] seasons’ been up and down,” said senior point guard Simmone Gage. “But this season, I think, is different in the way of determination. I think we have more determination … We’re working a little harder than different years in the past.”
The defeat of a higher-ranked opponent in any sport does not come without the necessary preparation. Both Gage and fellow senior Nina Napolitano said that changes to the game plan were made between Saturday’s win against Ohio Northern and their previous victory against Muskingum University on January 20.
When asked about what helped to beat Ohio Northern, Gage said, “We made a few adjustments … Execute and work really hard.”
Napolitano said, “They [Ohio Northern] definitely are a good team, they know what they’re doing, but we’ve improved since then … we’ve gathered more chemistry … The energy we bring that we bring to every game has improved.”
With the strong senior leadership, the team has been able to bounce back from losses to Mount Union and Ohio Northern early in the season. Gage said these losses were “a few bumps in the road.” In this pair of losses, both Gage and Napolitano said that there were clear problems during play.
“Honestly, we just weren’t playing as a team,” said Napolitano. “We weren’t playing together, some of us were kind of out of it, and [we weren’t] in our usual rhythms.”
Gage attributed much of the same elements to the two defeats earlier in the season.
“I think at that point [in the season], we were understanding that we could be good but not understanding that we need to work hard to fulfill what we want,” Gage said. “And I think that … was our turning point.”
Both Gage and Napolitano were positive that Capital would make it to the post-season and were very optimistic about the possibility of tournament play.
“We’d like to finish at the top of our conference,” said Napolitano. “Right now, ONU is at the top and we’re second. It’s an exciting place to be and … hopefully we could end up going to the OAC championship game. Hopefully we could end up winning that game and end up advancing to the NCAA tournament.”
