Hard at Work
July 26, 2010 10:45 AM | General
July 26, 2010
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – It may be the middle of summer in Morgantown, but senior guard Liz Repella is not taking a vacation. Neither are any of the other members on the women’s basketball team.
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| Liz Repella is anticipating another strong season in 2010.
WVU Photographic Services/M.G. Ellis photo |
“We’ve had weights and we’ve had conditioning, so we weight lift three times a week and we run two times a week, and on top of that we play in the gym three times a week,” Liz mentioned. “Also, a lot of us are getting in the gym extra for skill work.”
As NCAA regulations are strict in prohibiting formal basketball practices during the offseason, it’s up to Liz and team co-captain Madina Ali to organize workout sessions and encourage team members to attend, something that hasn’t posed any problems because of a high expectation level and overall team motivation for the 2010-11 season.
“We have huge expectations, and we feel that last year we didn’t accomplish what we wanted to accomplish,” Repella said. “But this year coming in, everyone’s focused and we have a goal of getting to the Final Four. With the talent we have, we feel that we can do that.”
The Mountaineers qualified as a No. 3 seed for the 2010 NCAA tournament and experienced success by defeating Lamar in the first round to advance to a second round game against San Diego State University. But WVU would lose its fifth-ever second round game by a score of 64-55.
“San Diego State was a great team, take nothing from them, but we just had an off game and you can’t have off games in the tournament,” she explained. “That’s what we’ve been focusing on all summer. We can’t have off days even in summer workouts because that can lead to an upset.”
Part of what hindered the Mountaineers against San Diego State was a struggling offense. Defense has traditionally been the staple of the women’s basketball program at WVU under coach Mike Carey, and it was no different during the 2009-10 season. The team averaged 40 rebounds, 10 steals and six blocks per game yet offensively, the women struggled at times.
“Over the summer, we’ve gone to the gym individually to work on our skills offensively, because we know that’s our weakness,” said Repella. “I mean, when you hold teams to under 50 points, but you can’t score 50 points, that’s a problem. Hopefully we’ll be able to make offense one of our strong aspects this season.”
Liz doesn’t seem to need much coaching when it comes to offense, however. She started every game for the Mountaineers during the 2009-10 season, and was the team leader in scoring, minutes (1,226), field goals made (178), field goals attempted (455), 3-pointers made (70) and 3-pointers attempted (209). She racked up a team leading seven 20-point games, four double-doubles, and 29 double-figure scoring games. If that wasn’t enough, she also scored her 1,000th career point, only the 27th Mountaineer to ever do so.
She’s also experienced a high level of academic success, receiving multiple awards for her efforts inside the classroom. Last year, Liz was named to the 2009-10 ESPN The Magazine Academic All-America Women’s Basketball University Division first team, an honor awarded by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA). She became the second CoSIDA Academic All-American in WVU women’s basketball history, following Rosemary Kosiorek, who received the honor in 1991 and 1992. An exercise physiology major, the senior was also named to the Dean’s List, WVU Athletic Director’s Academic Honor Roll, and was a BIG EAST Academic All-Star.
The secret to Liz’s success both on and off the court is hard work.
“I try to work hard every day, and give my best effort every day, and hopefully that will lead to successful things,” she said.
Successful things such as another solid season reaching the 20-win plateau, and a strong run in the 2011 NCAA tournament, something that especially means a lot to the upperclassmen on the team.
“Like I said before, all of us want to make a run at the tournament. My freshman year when we came here we didn’t accomplish what we needed to accomplish in the tournament and then last year we didn’t, so definitely me and Sarah (Miles) and Madina (Ali) and the upperclassmen, we really want to have a good run.”
With five new players joining the ranks this year (three freshman and two junior college graduates) the team has the potential to do great things and improve upon last season’s results.
“All five players are going to fit in well with our program,” commented Liz. “They can play defense and they can score, we have some shooters, we have some ball handlers. They’ll definitely help on the offensive end.”
The Mountaineers expect the 2010-11 season to get underway a little bit differently than in the past. Under the radar for most of last season, WVU started off picked 10th in the BIG EAST and steadily climbed the ladder to finish the season second. This accomplishment means that for the first time in a couple of years, WVU will start the season as one of the elite BIG EAST teams to beat, and other conference programs will be looking for the upset.
Liz believes that WVU can stay on top through hard work and intensity.
“We saw what we did last year with hard work, I mean, we started the preseason ranked 10th in the BIG EAST and then we finished second, so that just shows you what hard work is,” she said. “But we need to do more, we need to even work harder.”
This is a sentiment that she apparently shares with Carey. While he’s not allowed to attend offseason practice sessions, he has spoken to the women individually and stressed to each the skills that they can improve on over the summer. Strength and conditioning coach Andy Kettler has also been working with the team to improve their fitness as they close in on the start of the season. For their part, Liz and the other upperclassmen have been helping the new team members prepare as well, both mentally and physically, by teaching them what to expect once Midnight Madness has come and gone.
“Coach Carey is a great coach,” Liz said with a smile. “He’s very intense. My freshman year when I first got here it took me about a month to get used to his intensity, but I think that’s good in a coach. It makes the players want to do better.”
