At this point one year ago, the UR women?s basketball team sat on a dismal 4-11 overall record with no wins in the University Athletic Association.
This year, the story is drastically different. After 15 games the Yellowjackets find themselves at 10-5 overall and 3-3 in the UAA.
It hasn?t been since the 1996-1997 season that UR finished with more than 10 wins overall.
In fact, the Yellowjackets? wins during the past three seasons totaled only 16. Sixteen wins is a possibility that is not out of the question this year.
Chase Tournament
After a 76-98 loss on the road at Case Western Reserve University on Jan. 6, the Yellowackets had a 6-3 overall record and a 2-2 UAA mark.
The Yellow-jackets had one week to prepare after the trip to Cleveland for the annual Chase Scholarship Tournament.
The tournament pits all area Rochester teams against each other in an eight team format with bragging rights as the best Rochester women?s college basketball team on the line.
After a 74-55 victory over Keuka College in the first round, the Yellowjackets faced St. John Fisher College in the tournament semifinal. Despite making 12 steals and scoring 25 points on Fisher turnovers, the Yellow-jackets fell 59-69.The demise of the Yellowjackets against Fisher came on the back of a 30% shooting mark from the field.
In the third place game of the eighth annual tournament, UR beat SUNY Geneseo 59-51. Forty-two of the 59 Yellowjacket points came from the bench.
Jen Wafer and Katie Ha-rrington combined for 22 points to lead the Yellowjackets to victory.Sarah Sullivan led the Yellowjackets in rebounding, snatching 11 boards, four on the offensive side.
With a 53-49 road win at William Smith College, the Yellow-jackets improved their season record to 9-4 with all remaining games being played under the UAA umbrella except for a Feb. 6 home game against cross-town rival RIT.
At home
Last weekend the Yellow-jackets hosted two conference foes at the Louis Alexander Palestra on Friday and Sunday.
Carnegie Mellon University was first. With 16:38 to play in the second half, UR ran off a 13-0 that gave them the lead for good. Carnegie Mellon converted on a three-point field goal that pulled them within three points with under a minute to go. Junior Jen LaBuda made two free throws with 16 seconds left in the game to give UR the 66-61 win.
The win for the Yellowjackets was the third straight, putting their conference record at 3-2.
A day and a half later, UR puts its win streak and winning record in the conference on the line against Emory University.With UR leading 32-30 with 18 minutes to go in the game, Emory sparked to a 17-5 run that put away the Yellowjackets and killed their three-game winning streak.
High scorer
LaBuda was the only Yellow-jacket to score in double figures as she tallied 13 points in the 58-71 defeat. The loss brings UR?s season record to 10-5 overall.
The Yellowjackets will be on the road for their next four games. They will first travel to St. Louis to play Washington University.
Washington has established itself as one of the most dominant teams in all of college athletics by winning the last three Division III national championships and by riding a 80 game plus winning streak.
The Yellowjacket road trip will culminate at Carnegie Mellon University where UR will aim to sweep the season series with the Tartans.
