Wounded Wesmen play next woman up en route to hoops Classic

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This article was published 16/12/2018 (1954 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Injuries are a fact of life in sports but nothing could have prepared the University of Winnipeg women’s basketball team for a disastrous string of bad luck earlier this season.

The Wesmen lost three key players — fourth-year forward Katie Hastings Van, freshman guard Rayna Anderson and second-year forward Chelsea Espenberg — to season-ending knee injuries within weeks of each other earlier this fall.

Winnipeg’s roster was down to 10, and then nine, when another injury cropped up. The practicality of workouts was affected and head coach Tanya McKay could only wonder what might be next.

“We have 10 (players) back now,” said sophomore guard Robyn Boulanger Monday morning at a news conference to unveil the participants at the 52nd edition of the Wesmen Classic, which will be an exclusively female event for the first time.

“We lost three due to knee injuries. Just adjusting to it was kind of rough at first — not coming out strong to start the season but now we’re determined to make playoffs and use the Wesmen Classic to get our legs back.”

With Katie Hastings Van and Anderson recovering from ACL surgery and Espenberg undergoing a long-term rehab of her knee, the Wesmen are preparing to forge ahead after starting the Canada West Conference schedule with a 4-8 record.

“It was hard,” admitted McKay, whose next victory will be the 500th of her 23 seasons as head coach of the U of W women. “Two of the kids had recurring knee injuries. (Katie) wanted to play because she was injured last year. If anyone has a minor injury now, it begins to hurt you in practice if you got down to nine or eight or seven players. We really came through the first half, overcoming big obstacles and not only were we dealing with that, we were managing on the road three of four weekends.

“We travelled over 10,000 kilometres in those three trips. You’re trying to put a quality team on the court and we’re youthful. We’re young and learning as we we’re going along. Down the stretch we were playing very well and we’re hoping to bounce off that going into the Classic.”

Paige Hastings Van, Katie’s twin sister, believes there is an unintended benefit to the early season hardship.

“It did give a lot of opportunities for the new girls coming in,” said Paige Hastings Van. “A bit of a shock, coming from having three players down. It we have any other injuries and we’re down to nine, it makes it tough for five-on-five playing.”

For newcomer Deborah Nkiasi, a star out of Vincent Massey Collegiate, the circumstances have meant increased playing time and more attention to diversifying her game. She also started three games in the first half of the season.

“To be honest, as a freshman I wasn’t expecting many minutes, so to have this opportunity to play lots and gain experience — that’s been awesome,” said Nkiasi, a dominant post player and rebounding machine in high school. “We have so many good players.

“In high school I wasn’t shooting any three-pointers and now that I’m shooting three-pointers — the beginning of the season it was quite something.”

Added McKay: “She’s a phenomenal athlete and so getting her to the perimeter, we thought would take some time. But because things changed very quickly and she was thrown in the fire.”

McKay’s group was always going to be a team in transition, with star point guard Antoinette Miller graduating after the 2017-18 season.

American transfer Farrah Castillo (averaging 12 points and 4.6 assists per game) has filled Miller’s guard spot admirably, while Lena Wenke, Faith Hezekiah — an emerging star at forward — Jessica Dyck and Mikayla Funk fill out the usual starting five.

“I think it’s a very different team than last year,” said Paige Hastings Van. “We have lots of new players. Ant Miller was a very big part of it last year. Very dynamic. Having her leave and moving in new players has been a bit of a transition but it’s been good. It’s really good to have some new, very athletic players come into our program.”

mike.sawatzky@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @sawa14