By Brian Bohl
In her first season as head coach, Krista Kilburn-Steveskey proved she could handle a veteran unit. The Hofstra women’s basketball team finished 26-8 and advanced to the quarterfinals of the WNIT, marking the best showing in the school’s history.
That accomplishment was honored with a new banner that was unveiled at the Mack Sports Complex. But as soon as the pregame ceremony was complete, the Pride took to the court to a start a new season with an overhauled roster.
With the four-leading scorers from the previous season lost to graduation, Kilburn-Steveskey will be facing a different challenge in her sophomore campaign: coaxing a young team into maturing quickly enough to stay in contention in the CAA.
The growing pains were put on display in the season opener, featuring 24 turnovers and a 33.3 shooting percentage. A trial-and-error process featured 11 players seeing game action-including 10 in the first half-before the Pride finally pulled ahead for a 62-59 win over Iona on Sunday.
“I thought my team did a great job trying to make adjustments on the fly,” Kilburn-Steveskey said. “That gives us confidence that we can figure out who we are and go throw more things at other teams.”
Linn Quamme recorded her first career double-double, scoring 13 points while adding 13 rebounds. Jess Fuller fell one rebound shy of also achieving that mark, supporting Natty Fripp’s strong guard play. Quamme alternated between power forward and center, giving the Pride a size advantage playing alongside the 6-4 Fuller on the court.
“You just have to turn the page and make adjustments,” said Quamme, the lone senior on the active roster.
Vanessa Gidden, Lana Harshaw, Cigi McCollin and Lizanne Murphy all graduated, taking away four starters on a team that recorded the best home record (12-2), road wins (13) and conference victories (13) in the program’s history.
“I played under them for three years,” Quamme said. “We learned from them how we get things done around here. They established the way things worked. We have this quote in our locker room that says ‘tradition never graduates.’ It’s what we want to establish here at Hofstra.”
Eight players saw at least 10 minutes of action as part of a mix-and-match experiment. The early part of the season could be a good time to experiment, since the CAA portion of the schedule commences Jan. 10 in a home game against George Mason.
This is the time of year you want to give people some time,” Kilburn-Steveskey said. “We’ll see what happens out there and play around with some different combinations. We have to grow up quick.”