The Grinnell College women’s basketball team won their first game of the season against Rockford University Saturday with a score of 76-52. Amelia Rigel `28 led the Nov. 15 game with 13 points, closely followed by Kelsey Ericksen `26 with 12 points. With steady contributions from the whole team, members of the team said they are excited for the rest of the season.
The game started with two successful free throws from Grinnell, scored by Nora Lynch `28 and Skylar Thomas `26. From there, Grinnell played offensively, with Ericksen scoring the first basket. Grinnell dominated in the early stages of the game, with the first quarter ending 23-4.
Grinnell kept the energy up in the second period, starting off with a 3-pointer from Amelia Rigel `28. After two more threes from Rigel, period two ended 42-17.
Rockford picked up a bit in the third and fourth quarters, but Grinnell maintained a strong lead, with period three ending 57-33, featuring baskets from Ericksen and Ava Wu `29. Period four started off quick with a 3-pointer from Wu within the first minute. The game was closed out with several other 3-pointers from Georgia Patterson `29, Carolyn Pierce `27 and Elly Marriott `29. These contributions led the final score to be 76-52, and the first win of the new season.
Guard Lynch said, “Our plan was to just go in playing our own game, and I think we did that pretty well.” Lynch also spoke of maintaining discipline throughout the game, describing the team as “not really getting really scrappy if the game gets scrappy.”
Last year Grinnell women’s basketball had a fantastic season, making it to the Midwest Conference championship for the first time since 1991. “We were 19-8 last season which is the second best record in school history,” Head Coach Dana Harrold wrote in an email to The Scarlet & Black.
Even with the graduation of Sara Booher `25, Grace Marsh `25 and Nikki Ware `25, the Grinnell women’s basketball team is optimistic for the new season. Harrold wrote, “That group of three seniors really helped push us forward and put us in a place where I feel like we can be competitive in our Conference again this year.”
Guard Pierce sounded hopeful for the new season. “Overall, we’re really excited, I feel like we have a lot of depth, which is really exciting and a lot of first years included just pitching in really early, which is really great to see.”
“Our first game of the season was really even scoring all around. We got contributions from a lot of different players which is really good to see early in the season, and hopefully we can just continue that in future games,” added Lynch.
Their next game will be at home against Coe College on Nov. 18 at 7 p.m.
