Lancers prepare for championship

by Joseph Elliott

With Saturday’s win over the Laurier Golden Hawks, the University of Windsor women’s basketball team has further solidified themselves as a dynasty in the Winsdor-Essex County sports community.

The Lancers finished the regular season with a conference record of 21-1 and will play in their sixth consecutive Ontario University Athletics championship Saturday at the St. Dennis Centre against the Queen’s Gaels, who finished the regular season 16-6.

Under head coach Chantal Vallée, the Lancers have boasted a 153-44 regular season record since she took over in 2005. The Lancers have not had a losing season in seven years. Prior to Vallée’s tenure as head coach, the Lancers had a record of 36-106 between the 1998-’99 and 2004-’05 seasons.

“We have women that want to win and train really hard and we have coaches that pay great attention to details,” said Vallée. “I recruit great players, you need to have good players to be able to win games and certainly we have excellent athletes.”

Windsor has won all but one of the last six OUA championships, losing to the University of Ottawa Gee Gees in 2012. They have gone on to win three consecutive Canadian Interuniversity Sport national titles since 2011.

In her first season as a Lancer, rookie Cheyenne Roger had 119 points. Roger had one of the best performances of her season Saturday against the Golden Hawks, shooting a perfect 10 for 10 and putting up 20 points. Roger finished second in the country among CIS rookies with 43 blocks this season and earned OUA all-rookie honours.

“It’s pretty overwhelming, but playing with great players who have such experience and talent has been great in my first year,” said Roger. “I’ve learned a lot and I have taken all the lessons that I have learned and I am working on them and showing it in my games. It has been tough in practice but I am really enjoying it.”

The 2012-’13 Lancers made program history with an undefeated season and were ranked number one overall in Canada. It marked the first time in OUA history that a team has gone undefeated since moving from a 12 game to a 22 game schedule. In the last three seasons, coach Vallée has won 10 coaching awards, an Athena award and was presented with the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee medal.

Windsor has faced their next opponent, Queen’s, once this season in November and came out on top, winning 82-56. Coach Vallée said she has often looked to Queen’s head coach Dave Wilson on how he develops strategy against other teams. Wilson has been head coach of the Gaels since the 1981-’82 season and has a regular season coaching record of 287-261.

“[Queen’s] will be very physical and I think the coach will come up with a great plan to stop us,” said Vallée. “It’s going to be challenging for us because he is a great coach. I know he’s going to be challenging us and we will have to come out with our A-game to win.”

The Lancers take on Queen’s Saturday March 8 at the St. Denis Centre.