SEATTLE — Finally healthy — well, sort of healthy anyway — the Washington women’s basketball team will try to see just how much it has grown 10 games into the season.
A young and injury-plagued team, the Huskies have struggled to a 4-6 start in Tia Jackson’s first season, but the coach and her players are confident better times are ahead. And the Huskies had better hope the good times are coming soon, because 19th-ranked Ohio State is in town today to give the Huskies one of their toughest challenges to date.
“They’re good all the way around,” senior point guard Emily Florence said of the Buckeyes. “Their posts are athletic, their guards are athletic. They can shoot the three. It’ll be a huge challenge for us … If we could get that win, that would boost our confidence so much.”
The good news for Washington is that it faces the Buckeyes with a somewhat healthy team. So far, six Huskies have missed games with injuries, and that doesn’t include senior guard Dominique Banks, who is redshirting while recovering from stress fractures.
Freshman forward Mackenzie Argens is out for the season with a torn ACL. Sarah Morton, a Monroe High alum, is still recovering from an ACL injury and has been limited this season. Sara Mosiman was out while recovering from stress fracture surgery. Laura McLellan missed the first two games with a knee injury, Jess McCormack was out for three games with an ankle sprain and Andrea Plouffe has yet to play because of Achilles tendonitis.
Now, the Huskies will be as close to healthy as they’ve been all year, and Jackson is hopeful that Plouffe will play her first game today against Ohio State.
“This has not been to my expectations by any means,” Jackson said of the 4-6 start. “But in all 10 games we’ve not had two starters playing, so for us it’s a little different because we’ve had players playing out of position.”
The silver lining to the situation has been an opportunity for her bench players to play and improve, Jackson said: “So when we have our full roster back, those players are more polished than they would have been otherwise.”
When Plouffe returns it’ll be a big boost for a team that has had only one senior (Florence) on the floor this year. And having Plouffe’s 6-foot-2 presence would certainly help against Ohio State’s 6-4 freshman Jantel Lavender, who leads the Buckeyes with 17.5 points per game and averages a Big Ten-best 10.6 rebounds.
The Huskies feel like today’s game is a chance to start showing what their capabilities before Pac-10 play begins Dec. 28 at Cal .
“We’ve played some good teams and we’ve had some tough losses that we won’t forget,” Florence said. “I think we’re getting better every single game. We trust each other and we have good team chemistry out there. We have great athletes and we have good talent. We’ve had some injuries, but everybody is coming back and I think we have a lot to show people.”
Contact Herald Writer John Boyle at jboyle@heraldnet.com. For more on University of Washington sports, check out the Huskies blog at heraldnet.com /huskiesblog.
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