With fewer than three weeks until section placement, practice time and intensity accumulates as the team prepares for post season competition.

Assistant coach Daryl House believes the work ethic brought forth by head coach Massie has helped the team improve throughout the season.

“Coach Massie has continued to inspire a consistent work ethic. All the girls have worked together to become  a fundamentally stronger team for playoffs,” House said.

Senior captain Carly Donald said she believes additional practice hours will help the team complete all it needs to work on for the end of the season.

“With the end of the season coming we have added more practice time to try and be the best team we can be,” Donald said. “There have been optional morning practices to help with our shots and our evening practices have been running long trying to fit everything in.”

In addition to the increased practice hours, the team has found motivation despite an unfortunate injury of a team member, according to Donald.

On Jan. 9, senior captain Autumn Ballesteros had an unexpected end to her season.

“A shot went up, and I went up for a rebound against another girl. We bumped into each other while in the air and I landed straight legged and heard a variety of pops and cracks,” Ballesteros said.

These noises were what doctors diagnosed as a torn ACL, MCL, cartilage and sprained LCL.

These injuries will prevent her from playing sports for the remainder of her high school year.

This has damaged the team with the loss of one of its captains, however according to Donald, they still look to her for motivation.

“Autumn is an important part of the team and still brings a lot of energy and positivity. We have had to adapt without Autumn giving other players the opportunity to play hard,” Donald said.

Ballesteros is looking forward to sections and is confident in the team’s potential.

“I think we have a good chance at winning our first section game. We just need to keep working hard,” Ballesteros said.