Women’s Basketball Struggles with Consistency

Cross-town rival team, Concordia University, caused some damage at CU Arena in Irvine last Tuesday and sent the Lions back to VU with a loss.

The Lions played well, but not well enough to succeed in taking home the win.

By half time, they had a 10-point advantage over the Lions just in the first 20 minutes of play.
This pressured our women to play harder the second half, which they attempted, led by senior captain Molly Pfohl, playing forward, and freshman Leigha Bednar.

Ultimately, the Eagles managed to defeat VU for the first time since 2003.

“The loss did not make us change our goals. We just know that we have to work that much harder to obtain the objectives we have set,” Pfohl said.

Despite the loss that knocked off the GSAC No. 12 ranked-spot team, the Lions knew what they had to do come game day against Fresno Pacific University this last Saturday, Jan. 29.

“After our loss to Concordia and two good days of practice, we were excited to get back on a winning streak and protect the Pit. No GSAC teams can be taken lightly this year and Fresno has been playing really well these past few weeks,” Pfohl said.

Vanguard was not going to get another loss, especially not at home and they wanted to make that clear. FPU attempted to make a comeback, but the damage had been done. Vanguard went into the break with a 28-18 lead, confident of winning to push their record to 12-6 so far.

FPU followed behind by as many as 27 in the second half, leaving The Pit with a loss of 72-53 to VU.

Pfohl led the Lions with 20 points and sophomore shooting guard, Chelsea Alafara, added 19.

Senior captain and point guard Sarah Boyd fulfilled her position as point guard and led the offense with 10 assists and collected 6 steals.

“Losing to Concordia was a very big disappointment for our team. But I was proud of us for stepping up and taking care of business against Fresno. I think defense and rebounding will be what makes us successful this year,” Boyd said.

Our women have improved to 8-4 in conference play with the win.

“I think this second round of conference will be better for us. We got off to a rocky start, but this last game against Fresno really showed our potential. As long as we stay consistent, I think we have a good chance at winning conference. To do so, we can’t take any game for granted,” Alafara said.

The Lions look to improve their record with future games like the upcoming one on Feb. 1 against Point Loma University.