The UW-Eau Claire women’s basketball team, just three games into their season, has a 1-2 record with the goal of getting better on the defensive side of the ball.

The team lost to the Simpson College (Iowa) Storm on Friday 74-66, but turned around and beat the St. Olaf (Minn.) Oles on Saturday, 76-54.

“Friday’s game was a learning experience for us on the defensive,” said junior point guard Jenni LaCroix.

The team led the Friday game in rebounds and turnovers, with a total of 50 and 20 respectively, but the energy and drive they showed offensively was lacking defensively.

“We did not like how we represented ourselves on Tuesday,” senior guard Bree Meier said.  “We wanted to come out a lot sharper this weekend. We didn’t contest well enough on their shooters and that eventually cost us the game. We also are still improving on valuing the basketball and cutting our turnovers, that will help us win those closer games.”

The Saturday game against St. Olaf was the team’s first win of the season. The team again led the game in rebounds and turnovers but this time kept up with the other team’s defense and came out of the game with a final score of 76-54.

“On Saturday we came out strong right away and gained an early lead by having a good defensive presence,” Meier said.  “Going into the game, we weren’t happy with the way we were shooting the ball as a team but we had multiple people step up and shoot the ball really well off some great extra passes.”

Freshman guard, Hallee Hoeppner, was critical of Friday’s game but also optimistic about the rest of the season to come.

“With each game this season, we have improved,” Hoeppner said.  “Our game on Friday was better than our season opener against St. Kate’s (Minn.), but it was still not played at the level and pace we wanted. On Saturday, we finally executed on offense and defense and that allowed us to play how we had been practicing during our preseason.”

With three games under their belt and months of gameplay ahead of them, the team looks to continue to improve in many aspects of the game. 

“We still need to continue to work on limiting our turnovers and making smart passes and getting into passing lanes on defense,” Hoeppner said.

Two more home games are scheduled before the holiday break this week. November 22 at 6 p.m. against St. Norbert (Wis.) and Nov. 23 at 5:30 p.m. against Edgewood.