The Ravens women’s basketball team is starting the season in light of last year’s first national championship win, but head coach Taffe Charles and his players said this year will be drastically different than the last.
“I just think we’re not as good as people think we are,” Charles said.
All-stars Catherine Traer and Heather Lindsay are gone. So are former guards Jenjen Abella and Stephanie Carr, and 2018’s U Sports defensive player of the year Elizabeth Leblanc.
It could have been more: Nicole Gilmore and Cynthia Dupont decided to come back after both contemplated graduating.
“I told [the players] we had the name ‘Carleton’ on our shirts, but at the end of the day, that’s not the team that actually achieved what we achieved,” Charles said.
Coming in are newcomers Emma Huff, Deanna Hinds, Ivana Subasic, Navneet Sandhu, Sydney Fearon, and Mallory Katz. Marlee Ball is redshirting this year after transferring from Algoma University due to transfer eligibility rules. She played three years at Algoma.
The players said they realized this new reality after losing to the Concordia University Stingers 57-31 in the McKeen Metro Glebe tournament on Oct. 19 – their first loss in over a year. Gilmore and forward Alyssa Cerino called it “a wake-up call.”
The Ravens bounced back to beat the Laurentian University Voyageurs and the Acadia University Axewomen but their offensive struggles persisted.
Against Concordia, they scored 12 points at halftime. Against Laurentian, they scored 17. The following day against Acadia, they turned the ball over 31 times, including overtime. Carleton didn’t make a three-pointer for the first three quarters—going zero for 12—before hitting five of seven the rest of the game.
“We’re not gifted offensively, we don’t make the best decisions all the time and that’s a work in progress,” Charles said. He called it “a process” the team has been through before.
Carleton made the 2013 Women’s Basketball Final 8 Championship and then barely missed out on nationals the following year as they lost in the Ontario University Athletics (OUA) bronze medal game. The team lost key players such as OUA East Player of the year Elizabeth Roach.
The following season, the Ravens went 9-10 in Gilmore and Leblanc’s rookie year as Lindsay and Carr saw increased minutes. Now, Roach is back at Carleton in her first season as an assistant coach and different players will have to—once again—fill the void.
“You just got to go through those years where they’re just struggling and making mistakes and playing through mistakes. You’re going to have some losses with that,” Charles said. “That’s the bottom line.”
That struggle was on display during this weekend’s tournament. Guard Madison Reid was hot and cold from the three-point range. Forward Alyssa Cerino didn’t make a three-pointer against Acadia until her game-winner in overtime.
Alex Trivieri started at point guard as Jaclyn Ronson also filled in. She hit a corner three-pointer with 2.6 seconds remaining to force overtime against Acadia. Ronson played an average of 16 minutes per game this weekend.
Third-year Karyne Jolicoeur played an average of 19 minutes per game. Jolicoeur also played key minutes in last year’s Final 8 semi-final against McGill—despite being listed as a backup—due to foul trouble.
The players saw increased minutes and responsibilities, and the newcomers saw playing time. Cerino called it “a great tournament for our preseason.”
“I think that we kind of needed that too,” she said after the Acadia victory. “We’ve been fighting all weekend but I think that was a good fought battle back. I think we’re ready now for the season, a little bit more prepared from that overtime game.”
Cerino said the focus will be on making shots—through spending more time in the gym—and defending.
The returning players will also have to take up bigger leadership roles, according to Charles. Cerino said Gilmore and Dupont are “doing a great job.”
Gilmore said she and other leaders needed to take better accountability after the loss to Concordia. Second-year forward Emma Kiesekamp said the players had “a good talk” after the game.
Kiesekamp added that she and fellow second-year Reid also need to take up leadership positions, especially as they see more playing time. Charles called it “Growing up fast,” she said.
“We have to lead by example but the followers are leaders technically,” Kiesekamp added. “Me and Madison are working on it. I think it will come once I develop my game more, become more confident in myself.”
The Ravens open the season on the road against the University of Ottawa Gee-Gees on Oct. 26 at Montpetit Hall.
“It’s going to be a tough game,” Charles said. “They’re going to be ready for us.”
Charles said the team “still has to find a rotation that works, still to figure out who we can trust out there” and aren’t as ready themselves as they’d like to be for the start of the season.
“We’re not the same team,” he added. “It’s hard to live up to [last year] but again, we got to try and do the best we possibly can.”
Photo by Valerie Wutti
