Recap The Court

Jacob Smith

The Carleton Ravens women’s basketball team swept the banners last season, taking the OUA Critelli Cup and the Bronze Baby U SPORTS national championship back to Ottawa to hang on the wall beside their 2017-2018 championship.

In a stacked OUA East, the Ravens pushed past the 1-loss Queen’s Gaels to defeat them in both championship games, led by their point guard Kali Pocrnic and U SPORTS Rookie of the Year Jacqueline Urban, alongside now two time national champ Emma Kiesekamp who has since graduated and signed a pro contract overseas.

Now the Ravens look to defend their titles, but how good of a shot do they have? I’d say a pretty good one, let’s look at their upcoming season. They open 2023 on the road against the Guelph Gryphons, Western Mustangs and Windsor Lancers before returning home for a game against Brock and Lakehead.

Just in their first four games, their opponents provide each aspect of the Ravens team, an opportunity to shine. Going against the Guelph Gryphons who will be a relatively young team this year with a couple international recruits coming in, the guards Kali Pocrnic and Dorcas Buisa will probably look to get to the rim and test the one-on-one defence of the Gryphons without the length defensively of MacKeely Shantz who’s now at Western.

Western, their second opponent, will be where the forwards can battle and show what they can do against Sarah Harvey and the rebounding of Shantz. While I would give the advantage on the perimeter to the Ravens with the loss of Ariane Saumure for Western, the battle can be won back by the Mustangs inside the paint, and 6’2 forward Kinly Rice alongside Urban have an opportunity to show their physicality and turn the tide fully in favour of the Ravens.

Going further into their schedule, they meet the Brock Badgers in their fourth game, the one team outside of their division that beat them last year. What this presents the Ravens is the same thing it presented Brock last season, an opportunity to get steals and showcase the speed of the guards against the Brock guards who are now without Theresa Brown.

Each facet of the Ravens game will be tested and showcased early in the season, and as they go deeper into their year and see teams like McMaster who will be without Sarah Gates, Ottawa without Brigitte Lefebvre-Okankwu and Waterloo with a new core of players, an opportunity lies for the Ravens to not just replicate but improve on last season’s success, with really one major challenge staring them in the face in their own division, the team that met them in the finals.

How Carleton matches up against the Queen’s Gaels who are bringing back a majority of their roster except for three players, will show a lot about how their banner defence may go. The Ravens and Gaels to me, sit as the clear cut 1 and 2 in the OUA going into the season. If Carleton is able to come out on January 6th and defeat the Gaels at home in the first of their two matchups this season, I would look for the Ravens to be riding full momentum as the playoffs draw closer.

The Ravens have set their ceiling as the best in the country, and proven they can put together strings of incredible basketball. Now they have the target on their back, but they have the talent and system to fend off their opponents with different facets of their game. The Ravens are the best in the country until proven otherwise, and this 2023-2024 season will be trying to extend their ownership of that title just another summer longer.