The Eastern Mennonite University Royals Women’s Basketball team returned to play this past week after being on a two-week athletic pause. The Royals took on the Virginia Wesleyan University Marlins in a home game on Thursday night. The Royals fell to the Marlins 68-51 despite a career-high game for Tiffany Carey with 17 points and 10 rebounds.
The Royals also hosted the Randolph College Wildcats in the final home game of the regular season. The Royals forced a season-high 17 turnovers in the game. Claiborne Poston and Emily McCombs both scored 14 points a piece, but it was not enough to defeat the Wildcats. The Royals fell 59-50.
Freshman point guard Claiborne Poston was put into a big role for the Royals and has enjoyed it. “I have enjoyed my first year. It’s been super hard to stay consistent, but it’s still been so fun to get to know everyone and make friendships with all of them. I love playing, so it’s been hard to not be able to really get going with it. But overall, it’s been enjoyable.” said Poston.
With the ODAC tournament coming up, there is some excitement around it. “I’m looking forward just for the opportunity to play more with my team and to work on our team chemistry,” said Poston.
Head coach Jenny Posey was pleased with her team’s performance in the two games despite having a long time off. “We last played on January 26, and then weren’t able to be together on the court again until February 22. That’s definitely a long time to take off right in the middle of a season, and we knew we would have to battle to come back and be competitive. We were very fortunate that our athletic trainers Carleen, Ian, and Stephanie worked so hard to condition us in return to play and make it possible for us to even start on February 22. From there, our goal was to continue our program mission of competing with fire. For us, that means maximizing our potential and our opportunities” said Posey.
“We wanted different outcomes,” Posey added, “but in both of our games back we showed great improvement from our first two games of the season and showed that we have the heart to battle back from a lot of adversity. We are proud of our efforts, but far from satisfied with the outcome,”
With the season being short because of COVID, every team is in the ODAC tournament. The Royals are looking to take the next step. “The next step for us is to continue to take advantage of our practice opportunities so that we improve for our ODAC tournament game, which will take place this upcoming Thursday. While we are young, we are hungry to make a run in the postseason,” said Posey.
With the tournament ahead this week, the Royals hope to make a big run in the tournament.
