The San Domenico girls varsity basketball team is off to a great start to their season and overall has 4 wins and 1 loss. What has led the team to have amazing success? So far, the chemistry within the team is the most important factor to their success.
Sophomore Sarah Gordon says that although the team presents themselves well, they are facing some struggles due to the number of injuries. The team consists of 12 players and currently 4 players are out. Sophomore Mila Dawson, who is currently nursing a hip injury, made it clear that the injured people are always included someway within the drills during practice. Including the injured people is nice because they are able to stay in shape and be ready to return to games when feeling better.
Although the team is facing a series of injuries, the chemistry within the team and the hard work they put in shows on the court.
Recently the team played Marin Catholic which was a known challenge given their ranking, they compete in a higher division than SD’s varsity team. The game started with MC taking the lead and pulling ahead by 13 points. Even when SD was down, they did not give up hope. The teams fought back and forth, but SD gave it their all to close the gap. They pulled ahead and the student section exploded with cheers.
With the crowd going crazy, the energy was palpable. There was a shift in intensity from the players once the crowd became more involved. Players noted this had been the best game of their season. The players showed resilience in each and every one of the quarters.
Players believe that their strengths and esteem come from everyone dropping back to defense when there was a fast break, communicating with each other, and not forcing the ball. Given Carly Amborn is going to be playing Division I basketball next year, many players said how challenging it was to learn how to play with such an advanced player.
Amborn, who is playing at Stanford next year, is one of the team’s most important players. Amborn scores most of the points for the team and averages 30 points per game. Players noted that the most important part of playing with her is that they can’t always force the ball. Given she is going Division I next year, the easiest thing to do in games feels like to pass it to her and let her score. However, most of the players know that Amborn is a strong player, therefore they triple team her.
Since some teams have so many people guarding Amborn at once, it makes it easier for her to pass the ball to someone who is wide open and then have them score. Given the team has such a valuable player, this contributes highly to their success.
