Cabrini’s basketball season is right around the corner and both the men’s and women’s teams are preparing.
“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. A lot of them are sophomores and juniors,” 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 new additions to the team in forward Devahnte Mosley (#4), forward Chris Lawhorn (#44) and forward Devon Johnson (#50).
The Cabrini 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 3rd seed where they faced off against the 6th 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 2nd seeded Neumann. The Cavs just fell short as they lost 76 – 75.
Coming back with a vengeance after a close lost in the semifinals, Cabrini men’s basketball team is ready and hungry for a championship.
“Hopefully we will be able to compete for and win a CSAC Championship this year,” McDonald said.
The lady Cavs, on the other hand, is coming off 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,” women’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 3rd seed. They battled against Rosemont in the first round. They came out in 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 5th-consecutive CSAC championship and another appearance in the NCAA’s,” guard Sarah Martinez said.
According to the CSAC preseason poll, Cabrini men and woman’s basketball is second in the rankings.
Both the men and woman’s teams both open up their season with, “The Battle for Eagle Road,” as they take on Eastern University in non-conference play. Both the men and women are looking for wins to start off their season and to get a little revenge as they both suffered a lost against Eastern last year.
