The Storm Women’s Basketball team has started off the year 4-1. Junior forward

Jenna Taylor is a big part of their success, earning her first and second American Rivers Conference Player of the Week honors in the first two weeks of the season.

“It felt good to get it the first two weeks of the season,” Taylor said. “It was a good confidence booster to start off the season.”

Women’s Basketball Head Coach Brian Niemuth knows that the award is not undeserved for Taylor.

“There is no doubt that her time in the gym outside of practice has allowed her to make big steps,” Niemuth said. “There is no substitution for hard work.”

The team comes before any individual, for all the members of the team, no individual is better than the next.

“I like how hard they work in practice and how everyone puts the team over themselves,” Niemuth said. “We haven’t come close to reaching our potential yet.”

The Storm are shooting to make the conference tournament but want to play their best every game. Every practice is a chance for the team to get better and reach their potential.

“I want to be able to help our team get there, no matter if it’s offensively, defensively, or the

intangible things like bringing energy to the team or talking on the court,” Taylor said.

Communication is going to be key for the Storm. Taylor wants to make sure everyone

is working together offensively and defensively.

“The biggest thing we talked about this year is when our opponents go on runs, and then we have a dead ball, we come together to calm each other down and shut down the runs,” Taylor said. “Talking on defense is huge to make sure we can stop the other team.”

Though they may have lost the first conference game of the year to Wartburg on Nov. 28,  the squad went right back to work, running drills to help them in their next conference win against Luther.

“We are going to build on that loss and make sure that we come out right away with a lot of

energy, even coming off the bus after the long road trips,” Taylor said. “I think it was a good learning point, hopefully we can build and learn on that tomorrow to build through the year.”

There is still a lot of games to play, and Taylor and her team are working to get better every day.

“This group is hungry for success and continue to work hard,” said Niemuth, “If they can continue to work hard and put the team first, they can accomplish a lot.”