Cancun Challenge-Arkansas Game

First off....Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!! We hope you all enjoyed your day and had time to spend it with your friends and family!! Among many things, we are very thankful for all of the support you, our fans, have shown us and we want to thank YOU for everything you have done!!

I hate to say it, but it was another tough one today. The girls played great and really went out there and gave it their all...unfortunately, we came up short again. We made some great plays and really kept to what we were supposed to do defensively, which we are proud of them for doing. Anna led us with 15 points and 11 rebounds, while freshmen, Diana Hubbard, is really proving herself by shooting 4-6 from beyond the arc. Check out the full online article and stats at http://www.icgaels.com/ViewArticle.dbml?SPSID=64325&SPID=7100&DB_OEM_ID=14900&ATCLID=204840729.

The Cancun Challenge Banquet was tonight and all of the teams got together, ate a nice dinner and saw an authentic Mayan ritual on stage (video clips of that to come!!). Coach Bozzella gave a short post-game interview prior to the tournament banquet tonight. We are ready for tomorrow's game...we all know what needs to be done!!

Oh the Places You Will Go

The Notre Dame trip was a great experience for the girls. The chance to see a ND home football game, as well as play in front of a crowd of 8,511 people is something the team will never forget. The outcome of our game was nothing like what we had hoped for, or have worked so hard for these past few months. The word we are using to describe our performance is disappointment. The girls seem to understand that they need to step it up if we want to do anything special this year because playing like we did on Sunday will most definitely not cut it. However, we still wanted to give all of you a little peek at what we saw while we were at Notre Dame...check out the short video of the football festivities.

Right now we are getting ready to play Arkansas and Cleveland State in the Cancun Challenge in Cancun, Mexico. A bunch of us (staff) are already here in Cancun, and let me tell you...it's pretty amazing! Glad to be getting a little sunshine and warm weather...but it's down to business once the team arrives tomorrow afternoon until our last game Friday afternoon. We'll keep you updated on how it's going down here and hopefully be writing about 2 more wins under our belt soon!

Happy Birthday, Coach Bozzella

Although the cake tradition wasn't carried out for Coach B's birthday, I think he'll take tickets to the Notre Dame vs UCONN football game any day of the week...no offense to Coach Abbate's yummy cakes!! The team...players, coaches, managers, SID, trainer, moderator, and all of the above...will be going to watch the Irish play for Senior Day today.

We are all so excited!! After practice today on Notre Dame's campus, we saw hundreds (maybe thousands) of Irish fans tailgating all over the place...parking lots, yards, fields, you name it, they were there. It's going to be a crazy day and we can't wait to get it started! And, of course, our game tomorrow will be a great experience for the girls, as well.

Happy Birthday, Coach Bozzella!! Videos from our trip will be up soon!!

Season Opener Against Arizona

So the end result may not have been what we were looking for in our first game, but what an effort put forth by the girls...especially in the 2nd half! After losing last night to Arizona in our Tip Off Tournament / season opener (75-70 in overtime) we are putting our game-face on and coming ready for tonight's game against Bucknell.

Last night was a true test of the team's character and determination to fight back. Down by 21 points with 19:08 remaining in the game, we chipped away point by point and brought the game into overtime. Unfortunately, Arizona took the lead right away and we never got it back. Anna McLean showed how hard she's worked in the off-season to come back for her senior year and really kick it into gear! She ended the game with 22 points and 19 rebounds. Cat Lutz came ready for game-changing plays...she hit 5-11 from behind the arc, several of them coming at critical points in the game.

The fan attendance was great! They were into the game from the very beginning and stayed loud to the last few seconds. It was nice to see some of the summer camp girls come to support us...they helped out with the water and were great cheerleaders.

If you want to check out the article online or the stats from the game you can see them at http://www.icgaels.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=14900&ATCLID=204834205.

After a good start with our win in our Dowling exhibition game last Saturday (97-63), everyone is ready for the regular season games to be underway! Our Tip Off Tournament is this weekend and we expect a great showing from all of the teams...Univ. of Arizona, Bucknell Univ, Miami OH Univ., and of course, the Iona Lady Gaels!!

The tournament kicks off this Saturday with Miami (OH) vs. Bucknell at 5:00pm then Iona vs. Arizona at 7:30pm. As we've been saying all year long so far, the girls are working as hard as ever and are excited to see all of their time and effort pay off in the games!!

We look forward to seeing all of our "blog fans" at the games cheering us on! Go Gaels!!

GAMESSS

It's November and that only means one thing...GAMES ARE STARTING! We have our first exhibition game vs. Dowling tomorrow at 1:00pm and then we are full-swing into the regular season. We are so excited about our Tip Off Tournament on Nov 14th & 15th and having Arizona, Bucknell & Miami (OH) on campus.

The girls have been going so hard these past few weeks in practice, I know we are all ready to get the games going and see all the time spent in the gym pay off! Just like last year, there will be a theme for every home game this year, starting off with Kids Day Out / National Diabetes Day on Nov. 20th against Pacific. The full themed schedule will be up on our website soon, so be sure to check it out!!