Otterbein women's basketball is coming off their most impressive win of the season over the Blue Streaks of John Carroll by a score of 69-67 to give the Cardinals some much needed confidence.
The game, which was played on Jan. 29 at the Rike Center, improved the team's record to 9-9 as well as 5-6 in conference play, slotting them fifth in the OAC standings. Of the nine losses, five of them were by single digits. Despite the tough losses, coaches and players are still invested in the core values that give them a sense of hope, and the Cardinals are looking to finish in the top six to qualify for the OAC Tournament coming in February.
Some of the stars for the Cardinals have a lot of faith in what is to come next as they all say the goal is to win the OAC Tournament to secure an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.
Sophomore sports management major Abby Rawlings, who currently leads the team in assists, mentioned discipline and consistency as the main reasons for the tough losses, but Rawlings still has a lot of faith in the team.
“If we stay competing every practice and give 100%, I think we can win the OAC," Rawlings said.
Kathleen DeCarlo, a graduate student with an education major, is the team’s leader in field goal percentage with 47.2% and rebounds averaging 6.3 per game. She has kept a mentality of concentrating on the games that are coming up.
“I don’t even know who we play next week; I am focused on one week at a time and I think so does the rest of the team," DeCarlo said.
DeCarlo also spoke more on the core values set by the team and their head coach, Diana Noles.
“Her core values are super important; one of them right now that a lot of teams struggle with is trust and loyalty to the program," DeCarlo said. "We have all realized that, and we have gathered each other around because we understand our potential to be really good and finish off the season really well.”
In addition to trust and loyalty, Noles set the standard for the team to live by the core values of perseverance and discipline.
“If we put an emphasis on those then we can reach our goals which is winning, having fun, having a presence on campus, and growing as a player on and off the court," Noles said.
Noles also clarified more on the team's development, since she mentioned a lot of the players have little to no experience of playing at the college level. She said one of the team's biggest areas of focus early in the season was pushing through the inexperience and making sure everyone was improving as a team.
“I think the players have seen it and know they have gotten better. They have started to trust each other, trust us as coaches, and so now we just have to piece it together and get ourselves ready for a conference tournament” Noles said.
Sophomore exercise science major Kyla Irby, who is the current leading scorer for the Cardinals, attributes the team's core values as the main factor for their success and also spoke more on the team's development.
“We are really young and so we are just developing as a team as the younger players are coming in and getting more playing time, so I feel really good about the season,” Irby said.
