On Dec. 10, along with the stress of studying for finals and finishing up assignments by the end of the semester, the members of the women’s basketball team will face one of their biggest rivals, the Fishers Tigers.

Junior and forward Stephanie Irwin said, “Last year, (Fishers) played really well. They were really tough competitors. This year, I think it’ll be the exact same as last year, but I think they lost a couple of seniors. So, we are just going to play like we did last year.”

Since the Hounds lost to the Tigers in both football and volleyball in the post- season tournament earlier this fall, the rivalry seems to have grown even more competitive.  However Head Coach Scott Bowen said this rivalry tends to bring about an interesting game every year. He said via email, “It’s always a great game between two good teams.”

Irwin and Bowen both said what the Hounds need to do to beat Fishers, deals with their defense. Irwin said, “We are really going to need to talk more on defense, to help each other out and be more enthusiastic in order to win.”

According to Bowen, Fishers tends to drive the ball often and move really quickly. He said, “(In order to beat Fishers we need to work on) moving our feet defensively and not reaching.”

According to Irwin, the team has been successful thus far because it has a lot of experience losing only one senior after last season. She said, “All of the players that are on Varisty this year were on it last year. So, last year was to get all of the kinks out and figure out what to do and stuff. This year we came back knowing what to do and where to go.”

The team’s next match-up after Fishers, is scheduled for Dec. 14 against Kokomo. The game is to be held in the Eric Clark Activity Center at 7:30 p.m.

Irwin said the team is working together to try to continue winning. “(The season) is going really well,” she said. “We have come together a lot since last year. We play together more than we ever have in the past.” By Alex Mackall <[email protected]>