Women’s Basketball Homecoming Recap: “Dare to Be Great”
Beanie Pechefsky ‘26
Photo of Gabby Hudson ‘26 by Kyra Johnsen ‘27
A week before homecoming, the Sarah Lawrence College (SLC) women’s basketball team saw the sparks of something new. They played a nail-biting first half against Brooklyn College, executing the plays they had been working on every practice with finesse and confidence. Moments before their game against Mount Holyoke on Sunday Nov. 16, head coach Martin Rather told the team, “dare to be great.” They earned their first victory of the season that day, with Jade Ling Eng-Stewart ‘29 putting up 24 points for the Gryphons and Gabby Hudson ‘26 putting up 20.
On Nov. 15, the team ran onto the court through a tunnel of gold poms held by SLC cheer. Banners and green-gold streamers swayed overhead, snacks and merch were being sold outside and the crowd started filing in. “I expect it’s going to be a very raucous environment here at the Campbell Sports Center and so our hope will be that we can use that to our advantage,” says Rather, “our path to victory is to be physical, control the glass and lean into the excitement of it all.”
The Women’s Basketball team banner, a reference to Coach Rather, who is also an attorney. Photo by Ariana Spanapoulos ‘26.
In the first quarter, the Gryphons gave it their all, putting up 17 points and playing a dynamic defense, only allowing the Coast Guard to come up four points ahead. The Bears continued playing strong offense and came out on top. While the results weren’t everything the Gryphons had hoped, the promise of greatness still shone through. There were many offensive and defensive highlights, consistent with what they displayed in previous games and scrimmages. Leading scorers for the Gryphons included Sarah Theriault ‘29, who scored 10, and Jersana Moore ‘29, who scored 9. Emrie Pedraza ‘28 played strong defense, putting consistent pressure on opponents throughout the game.
The team maintained their offensive consistency for all four quarters and learned what they had to do in order to defend against the more physical teams this season. In a post-game conversation, Rather spoke to the fact that Coast Guard is a team that plays with physicality, whereas Sarah Lawrence plays with finesse, resulting in a somewhat incongruous matchup. However, the team also spoke to the similarities between them and the Bears. “Their pace is something that we can achieve,” says Colleen Coughlin ‘26, “We’re a really fast team. Let’s capitalize on this and look forward to the next conference game.”
The aforementioned game was on Wednesday Nov. 19 at 7:00 p.m. against St. Joseph’s Long Island. It was a long drive out to the Danzi Athletic Center, but with a fire under their bellies and more familiarity with each other and their opponent, the promise of greatness was fulfilled. More on that in the next article.
