Riverland women’s basketball team is looking for improvements this season
Published 7:12 pm Thursday, November 7, 2013
Riverland’s McKenzie Zuniga takes a jump shot in practice at Riverland Gym Thursday. — Rocky Hulne/sports@austindailyherald.com
The Riverland Community College women’s basketball team will be short on numbers and size as it looks to improve on last year’s 13-14 overall record this season.
The Blue Devils, who started the season with two losses in the Minnesota West tournament, will be a guard-heavy team that will look to get on the run when it can.
“We’re looking to run and push the ball. We need to be in shape every game,” said RCC guard Victoria Larson, who is a sophomore from Rockland, Wis. “We have a great point guard and we have shooters on the outside. As long as our posts can play inside, we should be good.”
Riverland’s Victoria Larson handles the ball in practice in Riverland Gym Thursday. — Rocky Hulne/sports@austindailyherald.com
RCC will turn to Miriah Carruth, a freshman from St. Paul Johnson to run the point and she will give the Blue Devils a solid ball-handler who can make plays for herself and for others.
“We’re not super concerned about ball handling pressure, where in the past we had a lot of different people handling the ball,” RCC head coach Suzy Hebrink said.
Defensively, the Blue Devils will look to Brittanhy Zuniga, a sophomore from Albert Lea to lead the way. Zuniga has taken on a leadership role on the defensive end of the court and she is one of the Blue Devils’ best help defenders.
“I like to talk on defense and get everybody pumped up on the court,” Zuniga said.
RCC currently has just seven healthy players on its roster, but they have one player who can gain eligibility after the Christmas break and Pacelli grad Emily Rysavy will likely recover from an injury after the break.
The Blue Devils are going to use the first part of the season to work on getting better.
“We have plenty of room to improve,” Larson said. “We’re hoping to hit our stride after the Christmas break. We understand there’s a lot of work to be done.”
Hebrink said her team’s work ethic has been strong so far.
“These kids work real hard and because we’re young I think our improvement can be massive,” she said.
RCC will play three more road games before it hosts NIACC in its home opener Nov. 26 at 8 p.m. That will be the first of four straight home contests for the Blue Devils.
