By JARROD POTTER
UNDOING their grand final hoodoo, the Casey Cavaliers women added their first championship to the trophy case with a Big V pre-season tournament victory.
The Cavaliers’ newly appointed captain Amy Mcfarlane said that finally winning a championship – after two seasons finishing runners-up in the Big V Division 2 Women’s competition – was a relief for the team and just revenge for an earlier loss in the tournament to Blackburn.
“We played against Blackburn and lost to them in the first game by seven points then we worked together really well for the rest of the games and we came out and dominated in the grand final,” Mcfarlane said.
That domination equalled a 62-36 win in a match with just eight-minute quarters instead of the traditional 10 – a true thumping in any sense of the word.
The captain said star forward Alex Keates was exceptional in the key and Sam Johnson delivered on defence on top of a collective team effort.
“Alex Keates played awesomely,” Mcfarlane said.
“In the key no matter what was going on and she dominated and Sammy’s defence was really helpful and stopped a lot of their guards.
“It was a kind of a team round effort – had a couple of early fouls and everyone rotated well and a real team.”
Having her team mates vote her into the captaincy this season was a big honour for the Cavaliers’ point guard and she hopes to repay that confidence.
“It really is,” Mcfarlane said about her newly bequeathed captaincy. “It’s nice to know the girls have faith in me to lead them.”
“We have to just to keep that form and effort we’ve got together – get there and even if our plays don’t work and we just need to get ball movement and stick together as a team.”
Mcfarlane said to watch out for her new team mates Cherise Jacotine and Cassie Bridge in the Cavaliers’ first clash of the season against Wodonga on Saturday afternoon.
The Cavaliers women donated their tournament winnings to the Cavaliers Ballin’ for Breast Cancer fundraising event at Cranbourne Basketball Stadium on Saturday 10 May.
The triple-header aims to fundraise for Breast Cancer Network Australia (BCNA).
More information is available on the Casey Cavaliers Facebook event page by searching “Ballin for breast cancer”.
CASEY CAVALIERS WOMEN’S ROSTER:
Amy McFarlane (captain), Courtney Duff, Erin Ludwick, Courtney Graf, Natalie Dowdy, Cherise Jacotine, Samantha Johnson, Lara Pauline, Jessica Szalek, Alex Keates, Cassie Bridge and Ellen Lawson.
