“We are currently at 5-5 at the turn in the conference,” said women’s basketball coach Stephanie Flamini. “So we are aiming at trying to go at least 5-5 again in the final 10 games. The conference is really even this year and that has really made it exciting and fun to be a part of.” During winter break the women’s basketball team played five games and won three of them.

They won 77-42 over Old Dominican Athletic Conference (ODAC) contender Hollins University on Jan. 6, and 69-61 in overtime against another ODAC foe, Bridgewater on Jan. 9.

The Quakers enjoyed another win versus Randolph, 72-64 but lost to Randolph-Macon 84-64 on Jan. 16, which was followed by another loss, 70-61 against Virginia Wesleyan.

“We’ve won some big games and we’ve suffered some tough losses but they’ve all helped us grow as a team,” said junior Jasmine Wood.

Senior and team captain Brittany Bumgarner said that she is most proud that the team learned from their past experiences and are applying their knowledge to their performance in the current season.

“This season, I feel like our experience is very evident,” said Bumgarner. “We have been able to pull out three overtime conference wins, and I don’t think we would have been able to do that last season.”

Even though experience has helped the women’s performance, they strive for improvement.

“I would like to improve our defense so we can shut teams down, so it won’t be an even game,” said senior Tracey Croner. “We need to come out more intense and play how we know we can.”

Bumgarner agrees: “Our weakness is playing a consistent 40 minutes of great basketball. If we could to that, we wouldn’t need overtime.”

Senior Shevon Hackett said that the women have the chance to apply what they have learned starting Jan. 20, because the team will begin to play their competition for a second time.

“We are excited about that because there are a couple of teams that we didn’t get the first time that we would really like to beat the second time around,” said Hackett. “Our goal for the end of the season is to make it to playoffs.