By Lucy Jackson
Although four varsity starters returned from last year, the girlsâ basketball team suffered injuries late in the season. Despitea strong projection, the team ended in third place in the Mission League. Last yearâs leading scorer Nicole Hung â10 dropped out due to a knee injury just as league play started, leaving the team in a hole.
âYou feel like your hands are tied behind your back; youâre helpless,â Hung said.
With Hung out, the team rallied around point guard Nicole Nesbit â10; however, she suffered a deep thigh bruise with two games left in league competition. Though Nesbit played through it, Coach Melissa Hearlihy noticed a change in her play.
âLittle Nic [Nesbit] put pressure on the offense that gave us easy baskets,â Hearlihy said. âIn our last two games though, she was literally dragging her leg down the floor.â
Although the team rallied to 7-1 in Mission League play without Hungâs help, the loss of a healthy Nesbit proved too difficult to overcome. The team dropped its final two games of the regular season to Chaminade and Notre Dame.
âWe should have won league,â Hung said. âNow weâll be underdogs, so itâs up to us to prove ourselves. It all depends on whether the team wants to go out with a bang or lose in the first round.â
After losing the coin toss to Chaminade for second place, the Wolverines obtained the three seed in CIF and will play Wilson High School on Saturday afternoon. Though Hung is out for the season, Hearlihy expects Nesbit to be up and runing coming off five days of rest.
âWeâre going in as a three seed, but we donât see ourselves that way,â co-captain Clare Bergman â08 said. âWe know weâre better than that, so weâre going to get in some good practices this week and play to win on Saturday.â
