Jack Lambert
CWU women’s basketball will face both Colorado School of Mines (CSM) and Metropolitan State University (MSU) Denver for the first time in GNAC history this week..

The Wildcats will play CSM on Friday, Nov. 17 and MSU on Saturday, Nov. 18 in back-to-back away games.

To begin the season the CSM Orediggers lost their opening game against Arkansas-Fort Smith 75-45. Similarly, in MSU, Denver’s opening game, the Roadrunners fell to Texas A&M-Commerce 70-67. In contrast to these results, the Wildcats put up an impressive fight in their opening game to beat California State, Los Angeles 70-55.

The Wildcats, Roadrunners and Orediggers have yet to face any of the same opponents, however, if history is anything to go by, next week’s games will be nothing short of a battle.

The Wildcats will travel to Colorado for both games. Sophomore guard Alexis Pana said she wasn’t worried about losing the home-field advantage.

“I don’t think it’ll make a difference,” Pana said. “As a team we’re really tight, so we have that chemistry wherever we go.”

Playing two high intensity games in a row will put the pressure on the Wildcats to remain physically and mentally strong. Pana said the team would make sure to follow their coach’s instructions to remain in good form for both of their games.

“It’s exhausting on the body, but I think if we do what we’re supposed to do, get treatment and go into the training room like they ask us to, then we’ll be just fine,” Pana said.

Just as the Wildcats are looking to take care of their health and wellbeing between games, they are also looking to improve their game play.

“We’ve been really good at getting up and down the floor and just really pushing it,” Pana said. “It shows that we’re in better shape than other teams in our conference, which is really encouraging.”

Sophomore center Anna Matz said the Wildcats needed to work together as a team if they wanted to clutch the win in both of their games next week.

“I think we need to slow down a little bit because we can be a bit frantic,” Matz said. “We know what we need to do and we know what our play should look like and we get a little bit too excited at times.”

The Wildcats are in the beginning stages of what looks to be a promising season. Matz said she was looking forward to seeing where the team would go from here.

“I think we can only go up from here. We haven’t played to our full potential yet, so it’s going to be really exciting to see how that plays out this season,” Matz said. “We’re pretty good with changing environments and just playing our game. It doesn’t matter where we’re at, we just play together, play tough and compete.”

The Wildcats will face Colorado School of Mines on Nov. 17 in Golden, CO and MSU on Nov. 18, also in Golden, CO.