Kenan Cole will be documenting the women's basketball team's progress throughout the season in a weekly journal entry to the Colonial Army website. The junior from Rocky Ridge, Maryland is one of the women's basketball team's top players, as she was fourth on the team during the 2004-2005 campaign with 7.3 points per game, while finishing third on the team in assists. Be sure to check back every week for Kenan's latest entry.

Wednesday February 15th, 2006
It was another successful weekend going 2-0 against Duquesne and St. Bonaventure. Last Friday night we found ourselves in a close match with Duquesne. We got off to a slow start and found ourselves down by 8 going into halftime. In the second half we made a late run to take
the lead and pulled out the win. We stepped it up defensively first as we were determined not to lose the game. From Pittsburgh we drove up to Olean, NY where we took on St. Bonaventure. Again we got off to a slower start, although we were up at halftime in this game. In the
second half we pulled away by getting stops on defense and going inside where we had the height advantage. We also stopped rushing our game and ended the game with a 21-point win. After the game, our trip back home was a long one due to delays at the airport from the weather. It is good to be back home again where we are preparing for another set of good games this coming weekend. We face LaSalle on Friday night and then Richmond on Sunday. See you at tip-off!! Go GW!!!

Wednesday, February 1, 2006
It was another good weekend for us coming out with two wins over Fordham and Richmond. On Friday against Fordham we all came out ready to play since the game against UMass was the last thing on our minds. It was a decisive victory for us, which we were all looking for. The turnout was also great and added to the atmosphere. Saturday we traveled down to Richmond where we practiced and prepared for a very different team than Fordham. We wanted to come out with the same intensity that we had on Friday on Sunday to come out with another win. The game was much closer than the Fordham game, but we were able to keep our lead at the end. It was a career game for Jess Adair who contributed a lot with her 14 points. After our day off on Monday we are back in the gym preparing for our second meeting with Xavier at Xavier. We are looking to take last weekend's games and improve from them, while keeping up our intensity and hustle. After Xavier, we return home to play against St. Louis on Monday. Hope everybody enjoys the Super Bowl this Sunday and we'll see you at tip-off on Monday!! Go GW!!!!

Tuesday, January 24, 2006
A-10 Conference play is in full swing. With the non-conference schedule completed over the break, it is amazing to see how far we have come in what seems like such a short time period. Currently we are 5-1 in conference play with some great victories. We opened up conference play with Dayton at home over the break and had a good win over them. After Dayton we traveled to Philly to take on St. Joe's. The game stayed relatively close as St. Joe's is always a tough place to play, but in the end we came out with the win. After St. Joe's came the game that we had all been waiting for. After our loss to Temple in the A-10 Championship game, I think we were all waiting to face them again. We came out ready from the beginning and finished with a solid 17 point margin of victory. There was no rest though as we began preparing for Xavier, another tough team in the A-10. Again we were focused on the game and ready to continue with the intensity and heart that we played with against Temple. We didn't let down in the game and again came out with another win. After Xavier came our most recent weekend trip up to New England to take on first Rhode Island and then UMass. Despite the deafening noise of several thousand kids packing Rhode Island's gym, we played through it and gained a sound victory over the Rams. Our only loss in the 6 game stretch came to UMass just two days ago. We are taking that game and learning from it to not let it happen again. This week in practice our focus is going to be on this week's upcoming games at home against Fordham on Friday and then on the road at Richmond on Sunday. See you at tip-off on Friday!! Go GW!!!

Monday, December 19, 2005
Games, finals, and practice have made the past few weeks fly by. From the Tennessee game to our most recent game against Maine we came out hard and played well. Each game gave us some insight into things that we needed to work on and they also showed us some things that we need to keep doing. The main thing that we were all very proud of was the heart and effort that we brought to each game. We continue to work on shooting and foul shooting in practice and on our own in order to improve as we have struggled some in the past few games. Amidst the studying and the upcoming break, these past weeks have also brought some great accomplishments for our team. Jess Simmonds scored her 1,000th career point against SMU and Sarah-Jo and Kim each had career high scoring nights. Additionally Whitney had career highs this past game against Maine in both points and rebounds. Sarah-Jo was also named as the co-player of the week for the A-10. We are looking to continue this trend as we keep playing and getting better throughout the season. While we are all very happy that finals are done and excited about the holidays, our focus right now is on Yale. It'll be another good one tomorrow night in the Smith Center! See you at tip-off!! Go GW!!! And Merry Christmas!!

Sunday, December 4, 2005
Basketball is in session! After our loss to Virginia, we regrouped as a team and really focused on correcting the things that we didn't do well in that game. Our practices paid off when it came time for our next contest with Purdue in the Junkanoo Jam on Grand Bahama Island. We came out with a great win against Purdue, and the effort and heart with which we played was awesome. Whitney took a charge at the end of the game to give us the ball back and Lisa hit a free throw to seal the deal. Out next game in the Junkanoo Jam was against Texas for the Lucaya Division championship. Again it was a game played extremely hard and with a lot of effort and heart, however we didn't end up on top. Looking back at the game we definitely learned some things that we could have done differently, but we were all proud of how we played. In addition to a great tournament, we also got to enjoy the gorgeous weather of the Bahamas. I don't think it gets much better than snorkeling and swimming in clear water on a sunny day :) Returning from the Bahamas our next challenge was with Villanova this past Thursday. Looking for another win, we came in prepared and ready to go. Communication was the main key for us in beating Villanova and playing smart. We did both of these and again came out with the victory. Now we are preparing for Tennessee on Wednesday which is going to be a great game. We are continuing to work hard, learn, and grow from the games we have already played. See you at tip-off on Wednesday!! Go GW!!!

Thursday, November 17, 2005
Our exhibition game Sunday was a good win for us as a team. It was our first chance to play against someone other than ourselves for 40 minutes, and we really came together well. Coming into the game we were all excited and really looking to continue playing as a team and executing. We did a good job on the boards limiting second chance opportunities and it seemed like we really started to get a flow going as the game progressed. During practice this week, we took the positives out of our game on Sunday, but continued working; our focus is on Virginia. We worked on executing our offenses more precisely as well as making reads in the plays. As a team we want to have our offenses and defenses down stone cold. Carrying over what we learned from Sunday and what we worked on this week into tomorrow's game is going to be key. Virginia is a quick athletic team out of the ACC who also advanced to the second round of the NCAA tournament last year. For this game we are again looking to rebound, play solid defense, communicate both offensively and defensively, execute our offenses, and bring great intensity and hustle. It is going to be a good game and a fun game in which to play. We are all excited because the season is officially here! See you tomorrow night at tip-off for the 2005-2006 home opener! Go GW!!

Thursday, November 10, 2005
Sunday marks the unofficial beginning to the start of our schedule with an exhibition game versus Everyone's Internet. I believe the exhibition game is going to be a great experience for us to really put everything together. This past weekend we scrimmaged with George Mason University which allowed us to see some of the things that we needed to improve. This week in practice one of our focuses has been on defense, boxing out, and rebounding to limit second chance opportunities. We are definitely looking to bring this into the game, and I think rebounding will be a key both offensively and defensively for us. Additionally, we have also worked on becoming smooth in running our plays, making sure everybody is on the same page. Going into the game we as a team will be focusing on running the plays correctly, hitting screens, using screens, and then if the play breaks down to play off of that and get a good shot. Since this is our first game, I know that we will make some mistakes, but we want to make up for those mistakes with our intensity and hustle. I know everybody is excited for Sunday! See you at tip-off! Go GW!

Thursday, October 27, 2005
With another week of practice in the books we are fully in the swing of the season. This week again we continued to improve, learn, and challenge each other to get better. To let you get to know our team a little better I will start by introducing the five new freshmen. We added a lot of size to our inside game this year with the arrival of four posts  6'1'' and over and one shooting guard. Jessica and Jazmine Adair are twins locally from Anacostia who offer a great presence in the post offensively and defensively. Jamila Bates came cross country from Seattle, Washington and has shown herself thus far in practice to be hungry for rebounds. Chantelle John hails all the way from Toronto, Canada and brought her skills with her. Faith Peters is a shooting guard who comes from Baton Rouge, Louisiana and continues to light up the net. With all the new things to learn everyone has been doing great so far and we can't wait to start playing! Go GW!

Thursday, October 20, 2005
The season is here!!! After working hard in preseason, Colonials Invasion marked the beginning of the 2005-2006 basketball season. It was great to see the awesome turnout that we had for Colonials Invasion on Friday night. Everyone on the team is excited with the beginning of the season. We just completed our first week of practice and it is very good to be back in the swing of things. This first week of practice we started off getting some of the basics down, putting some offenses in, and continuing to work on defense. We have five new freshmen on the team this year who are doing a great job so far. We have big plans for this year looking for the A-10 championship and another trip to the NCAA tournament. Even though there's still a month before our first game, we're all excited and ready to go!  Go GW!!