Women\u2019s basketball is gearing up for the 2026-27 season, with its first official scrimmage on Tuesday, Nov. 3 at Simpson College. The team will look to improve from last season, which they finished with a 10-14 overall record and a 7-9 record in the Midwest Conference.<\/p>\n
The team\u2019s season began on Oct. 15, but preparation started in August. The team\u2019s preseason consisted of three weightlifting sessions and three open gym sessions a week.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis year, preseason was the most structured it\u2019s ever been, thanks to our fall strength
and conditioning program and the preseason they designed for us,\u201d wrote Carolyn Pierce `27, in an email to The S&B.<\/p>\n
Head women\u2019s basketball coach Dana Harrold, who has served in the role since July 2013, spoke about the excitement present during preseason.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou haven\u2019t won any games, you haven\u2019t lost any games, we\u2019re not five-and-a-half months into a really long season,\u201d Harrold said. \u201cEverybody\u2019s just excited about what our new team could be.\u201d<\/p>\n
Both Megan Walters `29, a center-forward, and Georgia Patterson `29, a guard, shared the preseason enthusiasm and added that their favorite part of preseason is crafting a new team.<\/p>\n
With a lot of new players and new playing styles, Patterson said she looks forward to seeing the team come together.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think just reestablishing the team culture and spending time with everyone and learning about people and playing with different players is also super fun,\u201d said Walters.<\/p>\n
The excitement carries throughout the team as Walters, Pierce and Patterson all shared their love for the community the team brings.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think a huge part of playing D-III is the memories you make with the people. So I\u2019m really excited to be on the bus and [attend] away games overnight, practices being on campus,\u201d said Walters.<\/p>\n
Pierce said she was most excited to play her last season with this current group, and believes they will perform well.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was really scared at first, as I am the only senior this semester, but as we\u2019ve all gotten closer, I think this group will shock a lot of people,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Both Coach Harrold and Pierce share the need for, and love of, balance that runs through the team.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are a young team, but I feel like we have a lot of different people who can do different things,\u201d said Pierce. \u201cThat is what I have always liked about this program. We are always a pretty well-rounded team, and someone new always seems to step up.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s exciting to coach a team where you have a different leading scorer every night, you rebound by committee, and you share the hard things, you share the good things,\u201d said Coach Harrold.<\/p>\n
Women\u2019s basketball\u2019s first game will be Wednesday, Nov. 11 at 7:30 p.m. at Central College in Pella, Iowa. More notably will be the team\u2019s first home game on Wednesday, Nov. 17 at 7 p.m. against Buena Vista University.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe energy when we have people in the stands is totally different,\u201d Walters said. \u201cIt\u2019s everything you need to get an extra steal or an extra rebound.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not just students, but parents and townspeople supporting the team, who make that energy possible, Pierce explained.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt doesn\u2019t just bring energy, it also reminds us how supported we are, and I think we all really appreciate that,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Women\u2019s basketball is gearing up for the 2026-27 season, with its first official scrimmage on Tuesday, Nov. 3…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":949880,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[64,63,726,85],"class_list":["post-949879","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-basketball","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-basketball","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/949879","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=949879"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/949879\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/949880"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=949879"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=949879"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=949879"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}