Season comes to an end for Lady Cougars

The women of Mount Vernon Nazarene University basketball have wrapped another season. This was the fourth year the Lady Cougars were coached by Amanda Short.

The Lady Cougars finished the season 13-18 and 6-12 in the extremely-tough Crossroads League. The team had many bright spots on the season, though. One of them being sophomore Taylor Gregory, finishing second team All-Crossroads League. Gregory had an outstanding season, averaging 16.5 points per game and 10.2 rebounds per game.

Coach Short was very impressed with Gregory receiving second- team honors.

“Our Conference is very strong, and it’s a great honor to receive any type of honor with so many great players,” Short said. “For Taylor to get second team as a sophomore is impressive, and I am happy for her”.

Another bright spot this season was seeing the return of senior Rachel Parks after she dealt with an injury that sidelined her all of last season. Parks was excited to finally be back on the floor this season.

“It was great to finally be back on the court. It was hard to have to sit out and watch, but I’m glad I had the opportunity to come back and play again,” Parks said.

Cassady Cain and Parks were the two seniors on the women’s basketball team this year.

Cain was a vital part of the women’s season as she started 23 of the 27 games she played in this year. Along with playing basketball, Cain is also a member of the women’s softball team here at MVNU.

The team had many other important contributors this season, and those ladies include freshmen Maggie Coblentz and Kayla Hovorka, sophomores Elizabeth Fee and Rachel Perry, and juniors Dani Ellerbrock and Madison Near.

Ellerbrock and Gregory were the only two ladies on the roster that played and started all 31 games this year for the Lady Cougars.

During this season, the ladies had warm-up shirts with the saying “Do More Say Less” on them. According to Parks, it was based off a book they read during the preseason.

“Our motto, ‘Do More Say Less,’ basically means to not say we were going to work really hard or spend time in the gym but rather put action to it,” Parks said.

This season had its ups and downs; but through it all, Coach Short’s main goals were for the girls to put everything they had out on the court and to have confidence in themselves.