The Ravens women’s basketball team had an undefeated home opening weekend—and received their 2018 national championship rings.
The Ravens beat the Wilfrid Laurier University Golden Hawks 74-53 on Nov. 2 before defeating the University of Waterloo Warriors 56-41 the following night.
Both returning and former players received their championship rings, which came in silver or gold, with the final score of the game engraved.
Some of the players received silver rings while others received gold. The rings had each player’s number on one side and the score of the national championship finals on the other.
“It was a pretty cool experience,” third-year guard Jaclyn Ronson said. “A lot of us are really excited before the game, although we didn’t want it to impact how we played because we still had a game to focus on.”
“It’s really great to see everybody back,” she added.
The Ravens got off to a slow start against both Laurier and Waterloo. The Golden Hawks outscored Carleton 18-16 after the first quarter, led by point guard Rachel Woodburn, who finished with 11 points.
“People that got to step up in terms of the energy that they bring on a day-to-day basis and we got to keep measuring to that,” Ravens head coach Taffe Charles said on the Laurier game.
“I think that’s one of the issues I’m disappointed in.”
The Ravens were able to find their offensive rhythm the rest of the game, led by Madison Reid’s game-high 25 points and five three-pointers. They also had 14 offensive rebounds to Laurier’s six.
“I thought when we started doing that, the crowd got going into it a little bit,” Charles said. “We played with more energy. We just got to bring our own energy . . . I’d like to see us start with energy and start a little bit better defensively.”
The following night, Waterloo took an early lead with baskets by Vanessa Hughes and Megan Goar. Carleton bounced back with a couple of three-pointers by Nicole Gilmore.
The Warriors made a comeback in the fourth quarter, but a few baskets by Alyssa Cerino finished the game off.
Ronson said while it was a good performance defensively, the offence still needs work.
“Our coach says a lot that we need to use more players so that nobody’s playing more than a certain amount of minutes so that we can use more bodies so that nobody’s exhausted on the court,” she said.
Part of the issue, according to the players, is younger players still learning how to “catch dynamically” and be more comfortable when working on the offensive end.
“We’re not ready to catch the ball and shoot but we just have to relax on that and focus on the feet and focus on the shot,” Karyne Jolicoeur said.
“A lot of girls come in and they don’t know how to catch dynamic,” Reid added. She said it makes a big difference as “you know what to do” and can shoot it better.
Charles said part of the learning experience is also about veteran leadership.
“They got to be in leadership roles and got to understand leaders need to lead from the front and they need to do when they don’t feel like it,” Charles said.
Trivieri and Dupont said they have taken on leadership roles by leading and motivating players on and off the court, especially with six first-year players.
“Practices are very hard because obviously, there’s a lot of new people and it’s important for [the first-years] to not only to do what’s asked of them but to understand what they’re doing,” Dupont said.
She said it involves her and other leaders—Trivieri, Gilmore, Cerino—helping out instead of just criticizing players.
“If they have questions, we try and make them feel comfortable to come talk to us and for us to further explain something if they didn’t understand,” Dupont said. “I think we’ve just been good at really being open with that.”
The Ravens will travel to the University of Windsor Lancers and the Western University Mustangs on Nov. 9-10.
— With files by Tim Austen
Photo by Tim Austen
