Lions to See Lineup Changes, Look to Make Strides in Ivy League

Change means things will be different, but that doesn’t imply anything positive or negative. Change is merely difference, and there will be a fair amount of change in the Columbia women’s basketball team this season.

When a team graduates players, it always means that something new is on the horizon—opportunities for younger players to step up, new challenges, new lineups, possible new schemes. It’s not every year, however, that a team graduates one of the best players in its history, which is the case with Columbia, whose guard Megan Griffith departed in May.

Along with her went guards Brooke Carey and Shasta Henderson and forward Becky Hogue. Each of these players played key roles during their time with the Lions and brought a different skill set that will be missed by the team.

Current players will be asked to step up and fill the roles that were left by the graduated seniors. There is no single player who can fit exactly into the position that was left by graduated seniors, as the players who will be seeing those minutes are different—but their differences can be positive for the Lions.

“Those three players’ [Carey, Henderson, and Griffith] playing time is going to be filled by primarily Sara Yee, Katrina Cragg—when she gets back [from injury]—and Michele Gage,” head coach Paul Nixon said. “It’s just that they won’t be plugged into exactly the same roles. Sara, I think, has the ability to be a tenacious defender like Shasta was, but she will also be running the point guard, like what Megan was doing.”

At this point, last year is past. The players that have since graduated had their time, and now a new group of players will have the chance to take the court and create their own legacies. This year’s team is about as different looking as one could expect.

As opposed to last season’s guard-heavy team, this year the Lions have a squad that really only has four true guards, three of them either freshmen or sophomores. The Lions will have a post-heavy lineup, with a lot of depth at the forward position. The catalyst for this change was the return of Gage and the recruiting of two 6-foot-3-inch forwards in Lauren Dwyer and Meghan Harker.

“The biggest difference [between this year and last], the most obvious difference that you’re going to see, even in warm-ups, is we’re going to be a significantly bigger team,” Nixon said. “We’re a lot more post-heavy in terms of our roster, and that’s the position this season where we actually have some depth on our roster.”

Gage missed all of last season due to an ACL injury after being a major factor in the Lions’ offense during her sophomore season. Now a senior, Gage will be expected to return to her sophomore form and contribute a good portion of the Light Blue’s offense.

“I expect Michele to step up and take on a lot of the scoring role that Megan filled on the team because Megan was definitely a scoring guard for us ... Michele, I think, will be able to step in and help fill some of that scoring void,” Nixon said.

Some major contributors that will be returning to the team along with Gage—although these players will not be returning from injury—will be the other possible starters, Yee, sophomore guard Danielle Browne, sophomore forward Chelsea Frazier, and senior guard Brittney Carfora.

Yee will be mainly playing point guard, taking the place of Griffith. Browne and Frazier, both part of last season’s Ivy League All-Rookie team, will take on similar roles this year at their respective positions. Browne will be asked to be a major piece of the Lions’ offense, as she sometimes was last season, and Frazier will need to be a rebounding force as well as the Lions’ main weapon in the low post. This season she will have two tall players in Dwyer and Harker to help her out down low, but as a sophomore, she is more experienced and established and will need to be a force in the post. Last season, Carfora led the country in three-point shooting percentage, and her senior leadership, smooth shot, and rebounding will be key for the Lions.

Along with Dwyer and Harker, the Lions also brought in three other new players in freshman Kathleen Roehrkasse and transfers Judie Lomax and Christina Gordon. Lomax is a sophomore and transferred from Oregon State University, but she will be unable to suit up until next season. Meanwhile, Gordon, a junior from Jacksonville State University, will be able to play as of Dec. 22.

The biggest strength of this year’s team, according to Nixon, is that this team is “very together”­—they make for a cohesive group. As a result, he expects the team to be very unselfish and pass well.

The Ivy League has also experienced some change, with many teams losing players to graduation, changing coaches, and adding new players to their rosters. In a conference like the Ivy League, where balance of power can change from year to year, the Lions will be looking to turn their game experience into victories.

“I see us with a team that does have a fair amount of experience when I compare us to the other teams in the league, even though we’re young, in that we have a lot of freshmen and sophomores,” Nixon said. “Our sophomores played as freshman, so they’re not just stepping into playing roles.”

With a young yet experienced team, there will be a lot of change on the court, but Nixon’s goals will not change.

“Every coach every year wants to talk about how your goal is to win the championship, and that’s certainly our goal here with this program,” Nixon said. “My goal last year was to be better than the year before ... so my goal for this year’s team is to be better than last year’s team, but then also to have that reflected with not just coming close, but winning and having a much better record than what we had last season.”