The Queens College women’s basketball team has maintained a 13-game winning streak, boosting the team’s season record from 8-3 to 21-3.
Coach Beth Naumovski believes a key factor in their continued success is improved communication from earlier in the season, leading to better team chemistry on and off the court.
“I think team chemistry is very important, especially for basketball because you always want to be on the same page as your teammates because it makes it a lot easier to make the right pass or the right reads knowing where your teammate is going to be,” junior guard Merrick Rowland said.
Another large component to their success is the outstanding performance of senior guard/forward Madison Rowland. Rowland currently leads the East Coast Conference in points and steals, is second in rebounds per game.
“I put in a lot of hard work along with everyone on the team starting in the preseason, one of the toughest preseasons in the conference, and the hard work has definitely paid off,” Madison Rowland said.
She recently broke the ECC record for most career steals, passed Shalonda Young as Queens College all-time scoring leader and is now nine rebounds shy from reaching the 1000 career rebound milestone.
Madison is one of three seniors on the team along with her sister, forward/center Mackenzie Rowland, and guard Joya McFarland.
On February 15, they will be playing their last regular season home game, a game set aside for Senior Day. With their time as Knights nearing an end, Madison had some advice to the younger players on the team.
“You’ve really gotta give it your all because it’s not going to be a walk in the park, and if coach recruited you then she believes that you can do whatever role you need to fill,” Madison said. “They have some big shoes to fill but they can do it.”
Naumovski continues to tell the team that they should focus on one game at a time because even with the momentum that they’ve gained with their winning streak, it might not always carry into the next game.
“We’ve been guilty many times of going into games assuming we’re going to win because we’re ranked higher than them in the standings which can lead to a little bit of inconsistent play. Every game is important for its own reasons, either due to history, rankings, or whatever,” Naumovski said.
After Senior Day there won’t be much time to relax as the postseason starts and the Knights will likely be the number one seed in the conference.
Caption- Madison Rowland has been named the ECC Player of the Week for the sixth time this season and is nine rebounds shy from being the first player in program history to record 2000 points and 1000 re
