It may be hard to imagine, but Virginia women's basketball begins Friday. Sunday the team played its first competition, an exhibition win over EA Sports, but it awaits its first regular season game this week.
Over the weekend Virginia fans were given the opportunity to see what style of play Virginia will adopt this year, with its relatively young, small but athletic roster.
When asked to describe her role on the team, sophomore Denesha Kenion cited her role "as an energizer, to get steals and finish on layups."
Sophomore guard Takisha Granberry added a list of her own responsibilities that includes, "pressuring the ball, getting rebounds, penetrating the lanes and getting my shots."
Both players stressed speed, yet failed to mention the team's frontcourt and inside game for one reason: size.
"We have to [stress our speed]," captain sophomore guard Sharneé Zoll said. "It is essential. If we get caught in a half-court game, it is a big disadvantage."
Virginia's two tallest players, 6-foot-9 Lindsay Hayward and 6-foot-3 Abby Robertson, are both freshmen who will see limited action early in the season.
The Virginia frontcourt is led by captains 6-foot-2 junior center Siedah Williams and 6-foot-1 senior forward Tiffany Sardin. In a starting lineup that features three guards, Virginia hopes to rely on Williams and Sardin to contribute significantly on both sides of the court. In contrast, Duke's largest two frontcourt players are 6-foot-7 and 6-foot-5.
In Sunday's win over EA Sports, Virginia out rebounded its opponent 43 to 28, led by Sardin's 14-board effort.
"I was pleased with our rebounding [Sunday]," Ryan said. "That is an area that we spend a lot of time on because we have to. We are not big, so we need to spend a lot of time working on that part of our game."
On defense, Virginia hopes to create turnovers that can easily be converted into transition points. Often times, shorter players can use their quickness and body to unnerve the opponent.
"The guards get a lot of pressure [from our coaches] to put pressure on the [opponent's] guards," Zoll said. "Even if we are mismatched down low, we have our hands up pressuring."
The Cavaliers do not see their lack of depth and size in the frontcourt as a disadvantage, rather a reason to focus their play on the team's seven guards, out of a total of 12 players.
"You can tell that we have a lot of athletes," Virginia head coach Debbie Ryan said. "So we have to get up and down the court."
In addition, Virginia hopes its offseason training program has prepared the team to play an up-tempo style.
"We have a lot of faith in our big girls that they are going to work as hard as they can to get around and get tips," Zoll said. "If we get tips, then we can get steals and start running. I think that our conditioning is great right now. Ed [Nordenschild], our training and conditioning coach, has us ready to run."
By understanding how to best use their size and depth, the Cavaliers hope to fill the void of last year's graduated seniors and improve on 2005's second-round NCAA Tournament exit.
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