Women’s Basketball in Second Place

While everyone else at Eastern University was on Winter Break, the Women’s basketball team was working hard to improve their record to 13-4. The team left behind the Fall 2014 semester with an 8-1 record.

Meghan Nowak drives to the basket against King's College. — Meghan Nowak drives to the basket against King’s College. Erica Engle | EU Sports Information

The Eagles played five games over the winter break, and ended up adding a 3-2 record to the already existing 8-1 making the women’s team 11-3 before the start of Spring 2015 play. The break started off roughly for the Eagles losing their first two games to Number 6 University of Scranton (57-71) and Richard Stockton (61-65). Apparently, all the Eagles needed to turn it around was a change of scenery. The women flew from stateside to Puerto Rico just before Christmas to participate in the Puerto Rico Clasico.

While there, the first game was against a nationally ranked number 10 Williams College. A 51-40 win boosted the team morale and the women rode the momentum to a perfect record in Puerto Rico with a second 58-45 win against the University of Puerto Rico – Rio Piedras. The Eagles managed to carry this win streak home with them, beating PSU – Brandywine 74-56 on January 7.

During the first game back from the winter break the Eagles fell to the Number 1 team in the nation, FDU-Florham for their first conference loss of the season. Despite the 30 point loss, the women’s team has come out storming, gaining three wins in conference play against King’s (90-57), Manhattanville (71-65) and Misericordia (74-49). With these games the Eagles are holding the second place spot in conference play with a 5-1 record. The Eagles are behind only FDU-Florham who hold the first place spot with an undefeated record of 6-0.

Eastern has posted two Freedom Conference Player of the Week’s since break started including Emily Lavin, during finals week, and Meghan Nowak after her performance in Puerto Rico. Nowak was awarded the honor for the second time this season.

Next for the Eagles is a continuation of their conference play including DeSales University at home on Wednesday, Jan. 28 and Delaware Valley, also in St. David’s, on Saturday, Jan. 31.