After ending with a 4-26 overall record for two of the past three seasons, the Longwood women’s basketball team looks to ascend in Big South standings this year.
When Longwood released its schedule in early September, the slate didn't consist of any power five schools for the first time in 14 years.
“We wanted to put ourselves in a position to win and compete in conference, and I think in the past, we might have bitten off more than we could chew with the non-conference schedule,” said women's basketball head coach Bill Reinson.
He added, “Playing those power five teams last year, I think it beat us up a bit mentally. We had a lot of freshmen, they didn’t get to experience success."
Entering his eighth year, Reinson said the schedule should allow the team to shift into "winning mode" early, to carry with them into conference play.
Senior forward Autumn Childress echoed her coach and said, “It definitely give us a lot more confidence not going to big schools like Duke.”
Childress faced injuries last season, seeing action in only 13 games, but scored double digits in five of those 13 games.
Though Longwood won't face a Duke or West Virginia, the team will still face tough opponents as they travel to Marshall and George Mason and host Valparaiso and Norfolk State in November and December.
“Scheduling power five conference team isn’t always the easiest thing to go through, so this year we tried to find good teams that would be competitive games," said Reinson. "I really think we can win every game on our schedule.”
Childress said the team was excited to try out their new system on the competition it will face in non-conference play.
"We all want to try it out on other teams before going into conference," she said.
Then moving to the Big South Conference, the Radford Highlanders are speculated to be the front-runners; Reinson believed they were the "team to beat." The Highlanders will return all five of its starters after it was one missed layup away from winning the conference title a season ago, going 24-9 in last year.
As for the rest of the conference, Reinson said, “I think Liberty will be good, Campbell will be good, High Point also. Then after that it gets hard to tell. There’s a lot of good teams, and a lot of young teams, with new faces like us.”
Longwood finished last in the conference last season but will look to climb into the middle of the conference this year.
Childress said, “No one is expecting us to be very good this year, and I think we can use that to our advantage. So we don’t really see a Liberty or Radford, but we’re focused a lot on us, and we think our new system will put us in the best place to win against teams in the conference."
The new system that Childress spoke about will be the topic for the series in a few weeks. Until then, be sure to check back for the next installment in the bi-weekly series and meet the Lancers' coaching staff.
Autumn Childress is also a member of the Rotunda Studios staff, beginning in August 2017.
Women's basketball head coach Bill Reinson said he hopes the easier non-conference schedule will help instill confidence in the team moving into conference play.
