The USU-Eastern Lady Eagles will look to build off of their 1-1 start to the new season as they travel to Ephraim Friday and Saturday for the Snow College Invitational tournament.
The Lady Eagles opened the 2016 campaign with back-to-back games last Friday and Saturday on the road in Wyoming. After suffering a 70-51 loss to Casper College, the Lady Eagles bounced back the following day to top Central Wyoming 76-54.
Entering year two under head coach Chelsey Warburton, the early portion of the schedule presents several challenges for USU-Eastern. The first nine games of the year will take place on the road, while two opponents on the non-conference schedule appear in the NJCAA pre-season top 25.
Youth will be a factor for USU-Eastern, who started four freshman around returning standout sophomore Maile Richardson in Saturday’s win. 11 of the 16 players on this year’s roster are true freshman. Maturing the youth on this year’s team was a point of emphasis for the coaching staff heading into the season.
“There is two things we’ve focused on for our freshman; the speed of the game and the pressure they’ll see defensively,” said Warburton KOAL’s Drive Time Sports. “We just want to focus on us. We want teams to have to worry about us, so we just worry about our execution.”
Working through a difficult non-conference schedule will only be the beginning for the Lady Eagles. Fellow Scenic West Athletic Conference foes Salt Lake Community College and Southern Idaho both received a top 10 ranking in the preseason poll. With the conference now down to five teams following the departure of North Idaho, USU-Eastern will see both of the ranked teams four times.
“I think we match-up with pretty much every team in the conference across the board,” said Warburton. “We are a little bit younger and that may be a factor, but we just have to dig down and compete.”
The season will continue on Friday for the Lady Eagles as they meet Gillette College in Ephraim. The following day the team will battle Fort Carson.
After the trip to Ephraim wraps up USU-Eastern will travel to Arizona for three games in four days, before a trip to Salt Lake Thanksgiving weekend. The first set of home games will take place on Dec. 9 and 16 against two All-Star teams before Christmas break.
“Each game we have to get individually better and also better as a group,” Warburton said. “They need to understand the game, strategy and also how to improve when there are setbacks.”