UNIVERSITY HEIGHTS, Ohio --The 2019-2020 season had a heartbreaking ending for John Carroll University Women's Basketball after missing out on a bid to the NCAA Tournament. Since March, the team has endured an extended offseason filled with months of the uncertainty of if they will have the opportunity to compete this school year. The uncertainty has finally ended and the Blue Streaks are ready to kick off the 2021 season with a mature team and a new head coach. The Blue Streaks roster looks very similar to last year, with every starting player returning. One of the strongest areas on the Blue and Gold team will be maturity and leadership. "We have six seniors and four juniors. They have won an OAC Championship and been to the NCAA Tournament, so they know what it takes to grind out a long season," said the Blue Streaks' new head coach, Beth Andrews. "They were hurting last year when they didn't get into the NCAA draw, so I think they are going to come back with vengeance and put a whole season together." The 2021 Blue Streaks will be led by a first-year coach, Andrews, who is no stranger to JCU Women's Basketball. Andrews is an alumna of JCU, playing for the Blue Streaks from 2011-2015 and serving as an assistant coach from 2018-20. She will be joined by first-year assistant coach Michaela Barnes, who is bringing a new perspective to the team after a great career at Edinboro University, as well as veteran coach Bob Booher. This year features a distinct schedule format with the Blue Streaks playing 12 games against six Ohio Athletic Conference teams: Heidelberg University, University of Mount Union, Baldwin Wallace University, Ohio Northern University, Muskingum University and Otterbein University. The games will be played on each Friday and Saturday night. Andrews believes this year they will see more amped up competition in the OAC because of the anticipation the women had for this season. She is confident that the key to winning games this season will be fundamentals. "The OAC is one of the top conferences in the country and it is always a dogfight," explained Andrews. "I would love to say we have a distinct rival, but everyone is a rival and they are out to get us and we are out to get everyone." The senior class on the roster consists of Sarah Sprecher, Dani Carlson, Gabrielle Gevaudan, Stephanie Labas, Nicole Heffingtonand Abby Adler.
Carlson led the team last year in shots behind the arc with 43 and Heffington guided the defense with 38 steals and contributed offensively with 89 assists, the most on the team by any player.
The junior class is comprised of Olivia Nagy, Hannah Bouchy, Sarah Balfour and Shelby Ford.
Last season, Nagy led the team in multiple categories including points (445), total rebounds (301), blocks (132) and free throws made (62). Nagy also picked up accolades for her 2019-2020 season such as 2020 WBCA Honorable Mention All-American, 2020 D3Hoops.com First Team All-Great Lakes Region, 2020 Helen Ludwig OAC Player of the Year, 2020 OAC Defensive Player of the Year, 2020 First Team All-OAC, 2020 Academic All-OAC, USBWA Division III National Player of the Week: 1/14/2020 and 5 OAC Player of the Week titles.
For the underclassmen, the Blue Streaks have sophom*ores Kaelyn Underwood and Jaylen Hoffman returning. John Carroll also has two new members on the roster in sophom*ore Kayla Gudel, who transferred from Malone University and freshman Jensaya Leonard.
Having an older team filled with leadership has been essential in preparations for the out of the ordinary 2021 season according to First Team All-OAC junior center Nagy.
"We have to fit a lot more into each practice because we only had a couple of weeks to prepare for our first game," Nagy said.
This is not the only challenge the Blue Streaks are facing this season. They will have less time to practice because of the shortened schedule with less turnaround time in between games.
"We are playing twice a week back to back," noted Adler. "This will be difficult for us because we used to have two days to prepare for each game and now we will play Friday at 7:00 pm and Saturday at 6:00 pm each week."
Andrews expects her team to step up to these challenges and be prepared to fully dive into the shortened season.
"My expectations are for the team to have a perfect effort on Friday and Saturday nights and perfect effort during the week," said Andrews. "It is such an unknown season, and all I can ask for is that they come with energy and give 100% every single day."
As for now, the 2021 season is on, but a worry for the women's basketball team is the amount of uncertainty and the chance of not being able to compete in all 12 scheduled games this season.
Nagy said that patience is one way the Blue Streaks will tackle the problem of uncertainty during the season.
Many other of Nagy's teammates, including Adler, agreed on how important patience is during this difficult time.
"This whole past year has consisted of patience and a waiting game to see if we will even be able to have a season," said Adler.
The girls realize they are all in this together with their administrators, coaches, and teammates.
"Having the patience and respect for the administrators and people we are working with each day has been important," noted Bouchy. "They have been working up to 15 hours each day to make this season happen. We are all struggling in this together and need to respect each other and be patient."
The Blue Streaks' campaign kicks off Friday, Jan. 22 on the roadat Heidelberg with a 7:00 pm tip-off. JCU's first home competition will be Saturday, Jan. 23 at 6:00 pm at the Tony DeCarlo Varsity Center.
For games played in the 2021 season, spectators will not be allowed in attendance, but there is a variety of ways the public can still support the Blue Streaks.
Senior Dani Carlson mentioned that they will have cutouts in the crowd this year which will feature faces of fans, friends, family members and even some four-legged friends.
Everyone will have free access to watch the games via the live stream on jcusports.com for all games played at the DeCarlo Center.
