basketball: Women's B-ball team on a roll
Scott Wright, The Peak

The SFU women's basketball team handily defeated the Trinity Western Spartans and University of Victoria Vikings over the past two weekends to improve their record to a perfect 22-0 on the season and retain their No.1 national ranking.

It is not always easy to understand or explain the situation that the women's team faces. It is not sufficient to just win. What is important in most cases is how you win.

The opening game against Trinity was not the type of win that the Clan has become accustomed to. Leading by only four points at the half, SFU pulled away in the second half for a 78-61 victory.

To understand why this may not have been a pleasing result for the Clan, one must look at the results from earlier in the season when these two squads matched up. In their two victories SFU outscored Trinity by an average of 47.5 points. This number makes Friday's 17 point win seem somehow disappointing.

Jessica Kaczowka continued her outstanding campaign leading the Clan with 32 points on 14-20, shooting while pulling down 11 rebounds. Fifth year point guard Teresa Kleindienst played a solid all-around game chipping in with 13 points, nine assists, and seven steals.

Things returned to normal Saturday night, as the Clan jumped on Trinity early and often. Were it not for their experimentation with a full court press in the second half, the Clan's margin of victory would have been much larger than 24. That said, the final score was 90-66 in favour of SFU.

SFU's offensive attack was once again centered around Kaczowka, who scored 24 points and grabbed nine rebounds. Jenn Van De Walle came within two assists of a triple double as she recorded 23 points, 12 rebounds, and eight assists.

Coach Bruce Langford had mixed feelings about his team's outings.

"Friday night we just didn't come to play with the kind of passion that we needed," stated Langford matter of factly. "I thought [Saturday] we were maybe better in some ways than the score indicated. I thought we were very good offensively."

The Clan faced a somewhat similar situation in their match-up with the University of Victoria Vikings. UVic entered the games in last place in the Pacific division of the Canada West conference with a record of 4-10. SFU also beat the Vikes handily in November. The major difference this time was that the Clan were in hostile territory.

Langford warned against taking the Vikes lightly. "They are in their home place with their court and their environment so we need to be better than we were this weekend," he said.

The message must have gotten through, as the Clan swept both games handily from Victoria.

SFU, led by the 21 points on 9-9 shooting from the field and seven rebounds of Kaczowka, ran away from the Vikes early and never looked back as they recorded a 60-33 victory. Kleindienst continued her strong all around play with 12 points, five assists, and four rebounds.

The key to the Clan's success was their defensive intensity. They held UVic to 22 per cent shooting while connecting on 54 per cent of their attempts.

Game two of the series provided little drama, as SFU manhandled UVic to the tune of 73-35. Gaby Salazar provided an offensive boost with 18 points to compliment her always solid team play. Kleindienst turned in an outstanding performance with 22 points, seven assists, and an amazing nine steals. For her efforts, Kleindienst was named SFU athlete of the week.

The convincing wins were enough to bring a brief smile to coach Langford's face. "I thought we were better offensively Saturday than Friday," he said. "But overall we were pretty good both days."

Sounding just like a coach, Langford again warned about complacency. "I think we need to take it up another step," he stated. "I'm optimistic that we'll do that"

With their perfect record still intact, the SFU women return home for a matchup with the University of Calgary before closing out the regular season hosting the University of British Columbia Thunderbirds.

Facing Calgary should stir up plenty of emotion for the Clan as it was the Dinos who knocked SFU out of the playoffs last year.

"We're kind of glad they're coming into our gym," said senior captain Kirsten Wood. "It was a tough place to play at their gym last year and they played very well when we were there. Hopefully we can match that when they get here."

As for the undefeated record, it is nice, but the team has bigger plans in store.

Wood takes a somewhat unusual approach towards her team's record. "Always in the back of my mind is that we lost to Western [Washington]," she explained. "It was an exhibition game and it's not on our record but we did lose that game by two, so really we're not undefeated."

Langford shares some of Wood's feelings toward the undefeated record. "Too much talk about the future and not enough focus on the present, in some people's minds," said Langford. "We're trying to ignore all that."

Wood sums up the team's approach saying, "We just take things game by game."

An undefeated season is the stuff of legends. While the team may not be focusing on it, Clan fans and reporters are free to think about what may be rapidly approaching - a national championship.

Results from the Calgary games were not available at press time.

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