Western Mustangs Sports

The Mustangs recently continued their pre-season exhibition season, playing three strong CIS teams at the prestigious Don Grant Classic in New Brunswick. In their first game they were leading undefeated  New Brunswick at the half 51-45, but slipped in the 3rd quarter and lost 90-83. They closed the tournament successfully, stopping Acadia 64-57 and Saint Mary's, 75-52.

Following are observations on the east coast trip by Melissa Rondinelli, Jacklyn Selfe, and Katelyn Leddy.
 
Melissa Rondinelli 

I had an awesome time in New Brunswick. Being on the road pretty much guarantees great bonding time for our team since we are always together. It helps off the court to strengthen our relationships so that we can come together on the court. Much like Alberta, we had a chance to see the competition outside the OUA that could appear at Nationals. This allows us to see where we are and where we need to be to compete and win. In addition each university had a high school team following and supporting them for the weekend. We put them through a few drills on the court and spent some time with them off the court. It was just amazing to see how much some of the girls look up to athletes like us. Overall, we learned a lot from every aspect of the trip and it was a great experience.

Katelyn Leddy
The tournament in New Brunswick was a great experience. I had been out east before, to Halifax, but it was nice to see other parts of the country that I haven't been to, although it was extremely windy and cold! The people who put on the tournament were great; it was well run and the people in that community simply love basketball. I would absolutely love to go back to that tournament again if we get the chance. My car had the experience of going to Magnetic Hill; I still can't wrap my head around how it works but it was pretty cool that when the car was in neutral it seemed that you were going backwards up the hill. We went 2-1 for the weekend but it was nice to see the teams out east to get a sense of who we want to be playing come March!

Jacklyn Selfe

After a solid week of practice we were eager to head to new Brunswick and see where we stood against some of the top competition from the east coast. Our first game was against a tough UNB team, who were sitting with a 7-0 record. Unfortunately, we came away with a loss, but regrouped Friday night and came out strong vs Acadia the next afternoon to walk away with the win. Sunday is always tough, with it being the last day of a long weekend...but we handled SMU well, with strong team defense and execution.. and came away with another win. It was a busy time of the year with heavy mid-term schedules for everyone, but we started to realize what we can truly be capable of as a group and walked away with 2 W's. It's only the beginning and there is still so much to look forward to with regular season starting soon! We are continuing to compete and push one another every day so we can make some noise when the OUA begins. UBUNTU