Cabrini’s basketball season is underway and both the men and women’s teams are ready to make a run at the CSAC title.
“We have been spending a lot of time getting used to the new faces on our team. We have a lot of guys back this year (13-returners) so I think we have a good amount of experience,” men’s coach Tim McDonald said.
The Cavs have lost two players over the past season in guard Ace Henry, who graduated, and forward/guard Jair Green. The rest of the team looks pretty familiar with the exception of a couple of new additions to the team in forward Devahnte Mosley (#4), forward Chris Lawhorn (#44) and forward Devon Johnson (#50).
The Cavaliers finished 13-5 in conference play last season and 3-6 in non-conference play. They found their way into the CSAC tournament as the third seed where they faced off against the sixth seed Immaculata in the quarterfinals. Cabrini won that game 90-70 as they capitalized on the Mighty Macs’ mistakes with 26 points coming off turnovers. It was then time to move on to the semifinals for Cabrini as they faced up against the second seeded Neumann. The Cavs just fell short as they lost 76-75.
The Cavs look to come back for revenge after a close loss in the semifinals, as the team is ready and hungry for a championship.
The lady Cavs on the other hand are coming of a championship season, but that does not mean that things will be easy for them this time around.
“We have been working on getting familiar with each other, since we have a couple new faces this year,” woman’s coach Kate Pearson said. “Right now, our focus is on defense and making sure we are able to compete with anyone we play by getting it done on defense.”
The Cabrini woman’s basketball team had to say goodbye to five different players this off season with the departure of forward Mo O’Connell, guard Sarah Ryan, guard Megan Martin, guard Dana Peterson and forward Kristina Startare. They also welcomed many new faces this season with forward Pattie Fortescue (#10), forward Myonie Williamson (#14), guard Cassidy Gallagher (#21), forward Meghan Matthews (#23) and guard Erin Dodds (#30).
Cabrini finished the 2015-16 season with a 19-10 record and made it into the CSAC tournament as the third seed. They battled against Rosemont in the first round and came out with the win with the score of 70-48, thanks to the stingy defense by Martin and Startare who contributed with three steals each of their own. Cabrini then went on the road to battle Gwynedd Mercy and was victorious in that outing with a final score of 67-56. The final test for the lady Cavaliers was the championship game against Neumann University where they routed to a win with a score of 74-64. This championship made this the fourth one in a row for the lady Cavaliers.
“Hopefully this season we win a fifth-consecutive CSAC championship and another appearance in the NCAA’s,” guard Sarah Martinez said.
According to the CSAC preseason poll, Cabrini men and women’s basketball is second in the rankings.
Both the men and women’s teams both opened up their season with the battle for Eagle road as they took on Eastern University in non-conference play. The women fell 59-53 to the Eagles as the mens came out victorious routing the Eagles to a 81-66 opening night victory.
