Lancers women's basketball wins OUA title
By Michal Tellos
Sports Editor
Photo By Edwin Tam
March 4, 2009
 The wait is over, but no one on the team would say it wasn’t worth it. The Lancers women’s basketball team has finally won an OUA championship, and they did so in front of a packed home crowd last Saturday night.
The game had all the emotional ingredients needed for a championship: arguably the best team in the nation on an incredible winning streak, hosting a team that has had a Cinderella-run through the playoffs, the Ottawa Gee-Gees.
As if that wasn’t enough, the Gee-Gees were the only team who had managed to beat the Lancers earlier this season.
But Saturday night belonged to the Lancers, who never trailed or even led by less than 10. Dominating almost the entire game, the ladies took the game by a final score of 68-51.
The crowd of 1,632 was electric right from tip-off, as was the team, led by fourth-year Alisa Wulff. Wulff scored seven quick points on three consecutive shots to give the Lancers an early 11-2 lead, cheering loudly after each basket.
Her actions certainly seemed to get into the heads of her opponents, and Wulff later explained that that’s simply how she plays.
“That’s just how I play basketball. That’s how I step on the court every single game, regardless of whether it is a championship or not. I love the game of basketball, I love these girls, and that’s the way we play,” said Wulff, the eventual OUA player of the game.
Although she led all scorers, the whole team chipped in to crush the Gee-Gees at both ends of the court in the first half. Going into the break, the Lancers had a mammoth-sized lead of 28.
Defensively, the team was partially led by Raelyn Prince, who in playing hard-nosed defence had at least one huge block. She was simply doing what she was supposed to.
“I think I did alright. The coach told me to do my job and that we would come away with a win, so I did what I could do. I rebounded, I put in the easy baskets,” she said.
The third quarter saw an attempted Gee-Gee comeback, as the Lancers were greatly outscored, and their lead was cut to 16. Head Coach Chantal Vallee commented that she had hoped to break Ottawa’s focus, but that it did not work perfectly.
“We tried to get into their focus, but obviously it didn’t work perfectly, so we’ll have to take a look at that. Ottawa has some variety. We knew they would come in strong,” she said.
Nevertheless, the fourth quarter once again saw the Lancers dominate, and with seconds left in the game Dranadia Roc simply dribbled out the clock and watched her teammates and fans celebrate early.
Statistically, the girls were led by Wulff, who had 17 points and six rebounds, and Iva Peklova who had 10 rebounds and four points.
Immediately following the game, the girls and the coaches flooded the court, and graciously received the championship trophy along with their gold medals. Everyone was thrilled with the accomplishment, and among the most emotional was Peklova, a student who came to the Lancers from the Czech Republic.
“It makes me think that I really made a good decision about two years ago when I came to Canada. I’ve met so many really nice people, and I’ve learned so much about Canadian culture and basketball-wise it’s really given me a lot. I’m still learning so much about myself, which is definitely worth it even though I am so far away from my country, which is tough,” she said.
Wulff was entirely unworried about the attempted Ottawa comeback in the third, explaining that it simply made her focus more.
“You know I just play point-for-point. So they get a score and we have to get a score. We just focused on our game plan and we did what we had to do,” she said.
The win marked the third straight playoff win for the Lancers, and it was also the third straight playoff game in which they never trailed.
They were fresh off a Western Mustangs demolishing last Wednesday. The Lancers beat the Mustangs convincingly 82-61 to claim the OUA West championship.
Vallee believed that the win against Ottawa was a continuation of the win against Western.
“We started where we left off against Western. We were on fire, it was beautiful. I saw the girls play six consecutive amazing quarters. I’m very happy,” she said.
Although the girls are ranked second to Simon Fraser University in the CIS rankings, there were few present on Saturday that doubted the Lancers’ ability to bring home a national championship on March 8.
Each member of the Lancer squad couldn’t be more excited for the event.
“I’m so pumped. This is the first gold of my career, and I feel like it’s not really enough, I’m pretty hungry to achieve something bigger. We’re definitely going to go and play our hardest to try and win the national championships,” said Peklova.
“We don’t have second place. That’s our rating but we’re not going to have it until we show it, just like tonight. We’re going to have to play some tough basketball the way we know how, in order to come out in first place,” added Prince.
The OUA title, along with the coming appearance at the CIS championship at Regina, Sask., has great dual meaning for senior Emily Ross.
Ross said that winning a championship in your final year is the most satisfying way to win, and now she’ll get a chance to go back to her previous school for nationals.
“Regina is actually where I’m from, so I’m just so excited to bring this team there. These girls are awesome and I just love playing with them,” she said.
When asked what something like this means for the athletics department, Director of Athletics Gord Grace was all-smiles.
“It’s an exciting time when you think about it. The men won big today, and the women were of course the highlight with the provincial title. Track and field won a provincial title as well today. This is something special and I’m very happy for Chantal and all the girls,” he said.
|
