As the Cowgirl Basketball season nears its end, the Poke squad shared their thoughts on the season so far and their goals for the remainder of the season.
This year, marked by another year of the pandemic, certainly has come with its challenges as all seasons do.
However, the Cowgirl squad has persevered through pandemic related struggles and this has led to some bright moments for the Pokes.
“I think this year, to sum it up, has been an up and down year,” Head Coach Gerald Mattison said. “We’ve played very hard every game and we’ve become known as this great defensive team.”
“And we’ve had some struggle scoring this year at times and we’ve lost some games we probably should’ve won,” Mattison said. “On the other hand, when we get some scoring going we’ve won some games we probably shouldn’t have.”
One such win that provided some fuel for the Cowgirls this season was the road win on New Mexico’s home-turf, A.K.A. “The Pit”.
The Cowgirls defeated New Mexico 60-59 after a buzzer beater three from Senior guard Tommi Olson.
Olson shared one of her personal highlights of the season, citing the Cowgirls game against the Gonzaga Bulldogs.
“I know that we didn’t win, but that was just a great environment to play in,” Olson said. “We played really well as a team and I think a lot of people were able to grow in that game. So that really kind of kick started our season.”
Olson also mentioned the San Diego State game as a highlight for the Cowgirl squad.
“Another highlight would be the San Diego State game because that was our first conference game. And that was also our first win,” Olson said.
“That one was very energizing for our team to, you know, see where we stood in conference against other conference teams. That was a good team win.”
The Cowgirls did face some adversity in the early months of January when members of the team had to miss out on games due to COVID.
Head Coach Gerald Mattison shared some of his thoughts.
“For me personally, this COVID year has been way more challenging and difficult on me personally,” Mattison said. “It’s been a really challenging year and that’s had a lot to do with our ups and downs.”
Senior guard Quinn Weidemann echoed her coach’s sentiments.
“I think that really knocked us down a little bit,” Weidemann said. “I mean, more than half our team was out with COVID. So we had to kind of get back into it a little bit and it took us a few games to get back into it.”
Even with the challenges the Cowgirl squad has faced this season, there’s still plenty of games left and the Cowgirls look ahead to closing out their final games at home in Arena Auditorium.
“What we’ve been talking about is being 1-0 after each game,” Mattison said. “That’s all we’re talking about right now.”
The Cowgirls look to the three remaining games of the season against UNLV, San Diego State, and Colorado State, in addition to the Mountain West Conference Tournament.
“I think winning those three would be good for us,” Tommi Olson said, “It would give us confidence going into the tournament.”
“Our short term goal is beating UNLV on Thursday, because they are number one in the league. Beating them would give us more confidence and it’d be a good win for us, as a team. Long term is obviously winning the Mountain West Tournament,” Olson said.
“That’s something that I’ve been looking forward to since the last time we did it, so winning that is definitely the end goal.”
The Cowgirls return to Arena Auditorium this Thursday to take on the #1 ranked UNLV Lady Rebels.
