The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Panther’s women’s basketball team is starting to get eager for the upcoming season. They can feel it approaching, especially after Friday’s Panther Madness got the team pumped up and ready to get started.

After a 14-15 record last season, many believe the team is now in the position to be at the top of the Horizon League once again. The players all believe they deserve to be at the top of the conference.

Freshman forward Lindsay Laur said, “I think we have the potential to be very good. I know we would all like to win the conference and go to the NCAA tourney and I definitely think we can do that.”

Stephanie Schell agrees with her teammate, “From how our team is working together and playing together so far, I'm really excited for the season and think we have a great chance to compete at the top of the conference.”

This season has all the makings of an exciting one, with loads of young talent complimented by enough experience to lead the way through the season successfully. That experience will be monumental this season as they try to avoid ending the season as they did a year ago.

According to Laur, “Last season kind of ended on a bad note, it seemed like everyone wanted to be done. So far this season, we have been working very hard on and off the court. A key element in our success is to stay positive and have everyone work their very best no matter what their role is. Experience will no doubt help that.”

With Meredith Onson and Aubri Rote being the only two seniors on the roster this season, the team is bound to grow and get better over the duration of the season. With that in mind, you, the student fan, should be there to watch the team evolve throughout the year.

There are plenty of reasons to see this team starting with their potential. The biggest reason of all, however, is that the team wants us there.

A big crowd changes the game. Fans swing momentum, intimidate opposition, pump up the good guys, or women in this case. In other words, we can be like a part of the team.

If that doesn’t get you pumped to get there I don’t know what will. Don’t just take it from me though, Laur agrees, “The crowd 100 percent helps our team and the outcome of the game. I love having a loud student section to our advantage. I hope to see a lot more students at our games this year, especially because we have such high expectations and have the potential to do really well in non-conference and in conference.”

Traci Edwards wants to see more of us there too, “I feel like the crowd plays an important role and makes playing that much more fun. I would really love to see more fans come out to our games and cheer. I know that it gets the team more pumped up knowing people are cheering for us.”

And if that’s not enough to prove it to you, Schell said, “I think the crowd is a very crucial part of the game. Support is so important. Just having a crowded gym or loud fans is enough to get adrenaline going faster and build confidence in us players. Any student support and cheering is a huge advantage!”

The bottom line is get to all the games you can, become a Klotsche Krazie and go crazy for your team, you just might help them back to the top where they belong.

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