A new year of Carleton Ravens women’s basketball began the same way their last one ended—with a victory.
The Ravens beat Montmorency College Nomads 60-55 on Sept. 22 almost a year after defeating them last September.
The reigning national champion Ravens are riding a 49-game winning streak against Ontario competition—but, much has changed since last year.
Veteran players Jenjen Abella, Catherine Traer, Heather Lindsay, Stephanie Carr, and Elizabeth Leblanc, have since graduated.
Coming in are newcomers Navneet Sandhu, Emma Huff, Mallory Katz, Ivana Subasic, Sydney Fearon, and Deanna Hinds.
Only Chelsea, Que. native Huff, who originally committed to University of British Columbia Okanagan, saw playing time, notching four rebounds and one assist.
“On paper, it looks scary but live, it’s even more interesting,” Ravens head coach Taffe Charles said of the lineup.
Even the jerseys are different as the Ravens wore their rarely-used black jerseys rather than the iconic red ones worn at Capital Hoops and throughout last year’s playoffs. The returning faces are also in different roles.
“We’re all trying to figure out who can do what and put them in the right positions to be successful,” Charles said.
In contrast, forward Nicole Gilmore pointed out last year’s veterans “had such good chemistry that we basically knew what everyone was doing without even communicating with them.”
Gilmore is the only returning starter. Bench players Alex Trivieri, Alyssa Cerino and Cynthia Dupont started. Second-year players Madison Reid and Emma Kiesekamp saw increased minutes. Karyne Jolicoeur and Jaclyn Ronson stepped into important roles.
The Ravens fell behind in the second half but, like their national semi-finals against McGill, Carleton fought back, outscoring Montmorency 26-17 in the final quarter.
Carleton tied it, which led to the game-winning shot. Unlike the McGill game, it wasn’t Traer but Reid’s three-pointer that pushed Carleton ahead 58-55 for the victory.
The players expressed enthusiasm about their new season afterwards.
“It’s fun to be back,” Cerino said.
“It’s for sure exciting,” Kiesekamp added. “I’m excited to play with Jaclyn and KJ [Jolicoeur] and all those [others] just because we work well in practice together and I’m excited to see how we play on the court against different teams.”
Gilmore called it “a nice feeling” to see Jolicoeur starting, saying, “she’s probably one of the grittiest players—we know so it obviously brings me joy to see her reach that goal.”
Having Dupont and Gilmore back helps, Charles said. “It’s always great to have them to establish a culture with the new kids,” he said.
Dupont, who played Quebec college basketball for three years, debated going to nursing school at Algonquin College before coming back.
Gilmore originally planned to graduate before changing her mind.
“I felt like I was just kind of rushing out of school to get on to grad school or teachers college but I just wanted to slow down, keep all my options open,” Gilmore said.
Opinions differed on what expectations actually are for this season.
Cerino and KIesekamp said they’re taking it one game at a time. Charles set the goal as playoffs and then to look forward from there, but “making the playoffs with this team is going to be a bit of a challenge.”
Gilmore has her sights set on nationals, especially, she pointed out, since Ontario usually sends three teams there.
“My goal is not playoffs, because that’s not even a goal. I think that’s automatically going to happen,” she said. “So, even though it’s a new team, I still have full petal-to-the metal about getting to nationals.”
For Gilmore, the motivation is different as well. Last season was about the desperation of winning a national championship in the senior players’ final year.
“I think it’s more this year about kind of proving people wrong in a sense—like that was our year and that we’re kind of gone now,” she said. “I feel like it’s a bit more of a chip [off] over our shoulder that even though we lost a bunch of key players, we still have the Carleton foundation and fundamentals of playing hard, playing physical and not giving up.”
Photo by Lauren Hicks
