The Carleton Ravens women’s basketball were one win away from nationals in an overachieving season, according to head coach Taffe Charles.
“In general, I’m proud of them and sometimes, it doesn’t go your way,” Charles said.
The Ravens lost to the McMaster University Marauders in the Ontario University Athletics (OUA) semi-finals. He called reaching that stage “no small feat.”
“I think we obviously had some great moments,” Charles said. “I thought we surprised some people in terms of how well we consistently were over the year but whenever we were against the top five teams, we really didn’t match up as well as we like.”
The Ravens lost to each of the other semi-finalists during the season, including the University of Ottawa (U of O) Gee-Gees and the Lakehead University Thunderwolves. However, they also beat the U of O and defeated the Ryerson University Rams three times—once in playoffs. The Ravens finished with an 18-5 regular-season record.
The team entered the season in transition from their 2018 national championship, with new players having to fill new roles. This included OUA All-stars Nicole Gilmore (first-team) and Alyssa Cerino (third-team).
“We needed to have Alyssa and Nicole have special seasons, and I thought they did,” Charles said. “I thought that happened, and they’ve never been put in those situations.”
Gilmore was also named a second-team All-Canadian and OUA Defensive Player of the Year. Meanwhile, second-year players Madison Reid and Emma Kiesekamp took on starting roles.
“Madison was going to have to lead and take more of a forefront and I know that the talent is there and that she’ll be a future all-star—hopefully, all-Canadian one day, but that’s asking a lot for a second-year kid,” Charles said. “Emma Kiesekamp as well.”
The team also got contributions from the bench by guards Jaclyn Ronson, Karyne Jolicoeur, Alexandra Trivieri. The team’s six rookies also had roles in the season: guards Huff, Ivana Subasic, centre Deanna Hinds, and forwards Mallory Katz, Sydney Fearon, and Navneet Sandhu.
“A lot of people were in different roles this year and a lot of figuring out what people can do, and what I thought we started to figure out towards the end of the year and we got a lot of young kids,” Charles said. “I think they’ll be able to take the experience and learn from it.”
Charles praised the rookies’ performances, given they had to perform at a high level.
“I thought they tried hard but I think when you’re young, you don’t know what that actually means,” he said. “They tried as hard as they could from when [they] arrived but there’s obviously another level but they weren’t able to get to.”
To get to that next level, it will take development and training.
“It’s about what you want to improve and get better, and it’s always up to each individual for the most part how they progress,” Charles said. “We showed some great signs over the years of being able to develop people.”
Some of those players that developed over time are now leaving: Cynthia Dupont, Gilmore, and Trivieri.
“It’s really nice to see the three of them succeed,” rookie Emma Huff said. “From a personal standpoint, I feel really privileged to have them as vets to look up to and all of them. They bring different things to the table, and I’ve learned a lot from each of them during the year, so I’m just really grateful I had them to look up to in my first year.”
The veterans had taken it upon themselves to fill leadership roles and even organized weekly team meetings as well.
“They understand the struggles of being a first-year, and they’ve all been really understanding,” Huff said. “They know what we need to hear, when we need to hear it . . . they’re just really awesome human beings.”
The focus now shifts to filling the roles of graduating players. Fourth-year forward Marlee Ball, who redshirted this year due to transfer rules, will be a part of that. The Waterdown native played three years at Algoma University.
“It’s adding experience at this level and in terms of her talent level, it’s a big add,” Charles said. “I project her being able to contribute right away, so that’s good for the program.”
“We’ll have to do it by committee and some of the first-year kids will have to come along . . . and go through that process,” he added.
Charles said his current focus is on rest and recovery, as well as assessing the past season and the future. He added that the biggest thing will be recruiting for next year.
The Ravens also host the national championships next year with an automatic berth into the tournament.
“You want to be going there through the centre, that’s for sure,” Charles said. “You don’t want to be going there through the backdoor, that’s for sure. You want to play at a high level because at the end of the day, you got to play against the best teams.”
Image by Tim Austen
