Sports

Women's Basketball: One more golden moment for the Clan?

By Matt Lee

Make no mistake, this was where the SFU Clan expected to be in March.

The 2009-2010 campaign for the women’s basketball team went by pretty quickly and for the most part, the club was in cruise control. The Clan were never dislodged from their number one rank in the national standings and the team was an electric 28-1 against CIS opponents this season.

With CIS national titles in the years 2005, 2007, and 2009, the ladies have been one of the most dominant teams in CIS history. And with the school moving towards the NCAA next season, the Clan faced a multitude of storylines heading into the national tournament last weekend.

When Clan players Robyn Buna, Matteke Hutzler, Laurelle Weigl, and Kate Hole all made their commitment to play for SFU four and five years ago, they signed up for a CIS athletic experience. With the NCAA rules stating that players can only have four years of eligibility (as opposed to the CIS allowing five), the announcement that the Clan would be making the jump towards the NCAA meant that the four would be playing their final season on the Hill this year as opposed to next.

“It’s gone by really fast, but it’s been a lot of fun,” said Robyn Buna, who entered the tournament as the Canada West division’s most valuable player.

As the Clan entered national tournament play on Friday night, it was clear that the team was one of the deepest clubs in recent memory, perhaps even exceeding the talent levels of some of the teams which won the famed Bronze Baby trophies in 2005, 2007, and 2009.

“I think we’re deeper than we were last year, probably the deepest we’ve been since the Morgan [McLaughlin] and Danni [Langford] team [in 2005],” said head coach Bruce Langford. “This team has kind of seen it all, as they won the national championship as rookies [in 2007], went back the next season and lost. There’s maturity with this team.”

That kind of maturity will be needed in spades if the Clan will be returning to Burnaby with another title under their belts. With this year being SFU’s last kick at the CIS championship, combined with the loss of six athletes, nothing would be sweeter than to be remembered as a “dynasty” team that was a threat to win a national title every year.

Teams from British Columbia have had a tremendous track record at the tourney, with the last eight champions coming from SFU (4), UBC (3), and Victoria (1). Neither UBC nor Victoria were present at this year’s edition, however.

Another storyline stems from the fact that SFU has never won consecutive championships. For whatever reason, it was difficult for the Clan to defend their national crown and repeat as champions. The Clan could be the first team since the 1997 Manitoba Bisons to register back-to-back titles, so the incentive is certainly there.

In their first game Friday, the Clan took on the hosting McMaster Marauders, who entered the tournament ranked eighth in the CIS.

The Marauders, in front of their hometown crowd, came on strong to start the game, trailing SFU by a mere seven points by the first half. But the Clan clamped down defensively and got their offense going in the second , dropping McMaster by a score of 94-76.

Buna had an astounding 27 points by the final buzzer and Hutzler had 20 to her name.

“We knew in the first half we hadn’t played as well as we hoped,” said Robyn Buna following the game. “We’ve got to keep this going for the next few games.”

On Sunday, the gold medal game took place in McMaster. To find out whether or not the Clan repeated as national champions and brought home the gold, refer to athletics.sfu.ca for complete scores and full recaps.

With files from SFU Sports Information