The University of Richmond women’s basketball team concluded its regular season with a record of 18-11 after defeating Saint Louis University on Sunday.
“The season has been like a rollercoaster,” said women’s basketball coach Michael Shafer. “We had consistency issues.”
Two of the team’s captains, Rachael and Samantha Bilney, said the team had started the season off well, but conference play was tough because they were playing the same people and were familiar with teams’ and players’ strengths and weaknesses.
Shafer said the 67-66 buzzer-beater loss to Saint Joseph’s University had been one of the hardest conference losses to swallow.
“They played their hearts out and then they didn’t win,” Shafer said. “They got beat on a last-second shot. And I’ve always said it to them – and players don’t always know if you mean it or not – but if we compete, if we give our best and we do everything that we can possibly do and someone beats us – somebody beats us – then I can live with that.
“I can walk away feeling OK. And the reality of it is that’s what happened. I walked away feeling really proud of my team, but what bothered me was I just wanted so much for them to have the reward for their effort. “
And then there was the 86-37 loss against the No. 1 ranked University of Connecticut, which is on a 69-game winning streak.
“Just tack that one up to a learning experience,” Samantha said while laughing.
Injuries also played into the team’s consistency issues, Shafer said.
“The first day of practice, back in October, Crystal Goring went down with an ankle injury and was out for six weeks or so,” Shafer said.
Almost everyone on the team has had a major surgery, Rachael said. Katie Holzer and Kara Powell redshirted last year after knee
surgeries and Rebecca Kretchman had to stop playing altogether because of her injuries, she said.
“Once you get somebody back, then you lose somebody,” Shafer said. “So trying to get just a cohesive unit became a challenge.”
But the women did play as a unit in many games.
“We played really well against Clemson University in the beginning of the year up in UConn,” Shafer said. “We had over 20 assists, we shot the ball unbelievably well and we just wore them out. And I thought we did a similar thing against George Washington University in the beginning of the conference play.
“When we have 23 assists and a high number of turnovers and you look at numbers like that, to me that is the epitome of a team playing well together.”
Rachael and Samantha said they were happy with their decisions to play for the University of Richmond.
“People don’t know how much of a business this is,” Rachael said. “It’s a job. Every day, six to seven hours a day, for who knows how long, you have practice, travel and games, but the teachers here are usually very helpful.”
The Spiders will play the University of Massachusetts in the quarterfinals of the Atlantic 10 tournament on March 5.
“It’s more about redemption than anything,” Rachael said. “We were picked third in the beginning of the season and now we’re at eighth. We’re out to make a better name for ourselves and we can use the A-10 tournament as a statement.”
Contact Collegian reporter Kate McDonnell at kate.mcdonnell@richmond.edu
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