COLUMBUS — Basketball season has arrived, and the Owls women’s team is ready to go with a veteran roster under a new head coach.
Mississippi University for Women named Eric Vaughn the new head coach of the Owls in April, and he inherited a team that finished with a 7-15 record, going 6-12 in conference play in their first season as SLIAC members.
“The challenge is they’re learning a whole new system,” Vaughn said. “They haven’t played this way before, so the quicker they buy into it, the better. You get buy-in with winning. I think they see glimpses, the potential, but it’s uncharted waters and it’s a little bit more challenging. Once we see some success and they see how it is, I think we’ll be off to the races.”
Vaughn arrived just before the summer, taking over a team with a few key returners he sees making an impact. The Owls have a lot of firepower from range and plan on using it.
Notable returner Claire Leak ranked third DIII in three-point percentage with a remarkable 46.3% conversion rate from beyond the arc and a school record 50 three-pointers made.
“I feel pretty confident,” Leak said of the new season. “Last year we had a good percentage and I think it’ll carry over. The new coach and the new players add well to the team. We’re more athletic and we can compete better. Last year I felt kinda lost, we didn’t know what to look toward. This year we have bigger goals.”
Also returning for the Owls is prolific scorer Conley Langford, who led the team in points and rebounds at guard last season. She is already the career leader in eight statistical categories for the Owls, including points and field goals made, and expects to add to those numbers in her senior year.
“He loves for us to shoot, he tells everyone a good shot that’s open is one you can make,” Langford said. “He doesn’t put limits on us, he has confidence in us and wants us to have confidence in ourselves. I’d say we’re going to be letting them fly this year, and I think we’ll be successful with it because we’ve got some shooters on this team.”
Langford earned first-team All-SLIAC honors for her performances last season, as well as second-team Academic All-American honors for her work in the classroom.
As one of the leaders in the locker room, she is a player Vaughn already knew about coming into the job, and that connection has grown since the team got to work in September.
“The biggest thing is how open he is about his faith,” Langford said of working with Vaughn. “He leads us in the way of God and I think that makes a big difference. He’s a role model, we have great team chemistry and bonding, I think that all is going to play a role in us being great.”
Despite the expectation of improvement in-house, the SLIAC preseason coaches’ poll has the Owls predicted to finish in eighth. It’s where the team ended up last season, and Vaughn has already taken it as motivation.
“I’m excited that the conference picked us eighth because one of our players pointed out the number represents new beginnings, and that’s the perfect place for us because we can only go up,” he said. “We haven’t been to the conference tournament, we expect to do that this year. We believe we’re going to work hard, Lord willing there’s no injuries, but we feel good about where we are and how to improve.”
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