The women’s basketball team will hit the road and take on the Army Black Knights (6–1) this weekend after a three-game losing streak.
With conference play nearing, Yale (1-5, 0–0 Ivy) is looking for an upset to regain confidence on the court. They recently fell to DePaul, Northwestern and Quinnipiac.
“We have a quick turnaround this week from Wednesday’s game before Army, but the most important thing for us to do right now is to work on what we do as a team and really improve on that as we move forward approaching the Ivy League,” captain and guard Allie Messimer ’13 said.
Freshman guard Nyasha Sarju ’16, who was named Ivy League Rookie of the Week last Monday, will be an offensive threat for the Bulldogs during Saturday’s matchup. Going into this weekend, Sarju will have appeared in all six games this season, boasting an average of 10.2 points per game.
“The freshmen have all contributed so far, which is important to our team because we are so young,” guard and last season’s Ivy League Rookie of the Year Sarah Halejian ’15 said. “We will continue to expect even more out of them as the season progresses.”
Halejian leads the team with 13.7 points per game and plays an average of 27 minutes per game.
Heading into Saturday’s matchup, Yale will be ranked eighth among the nation’s Division I schools in 3-pointers made per game. However, the team is currently struggling to find cohesion, allowing an average of 82 points per game to its opponents and averaging 21 turnovers per game.
“Many things have contributed to our losses. We have a whole lot to work on still, such as playing as more of a cohesive group on offense, and committing more to our pressure defense and help defense principles,” Halejian said.
Last season, the Bulldogs beat Army 63–62. The Black Knights will hosting Yale this year coming off of a win against Columbia University last Wednesday.
Messimer said the team is looking forward to the beginning of Ivy competition against Brown in January.
“I really just try to keep everyone’s spirits up and make sure we focus on the real goal, which is getting ready for the Ivy League,” Messimer said. “It’s hard to look that far forward sometimes, but it’s my job to keep everyone’s head in the right place of just getting better and doing our best every night.”
Yale will take on Army at Christl Arena in West Point, N.Y. tomorrow. Tipoff is set for 3 p.m.