Team morale is at its peak this week af­ter a huge win for the Raiders against Holy Cross. Following a loss on the road against Lafayette (66-58), the women pulled to­gether as a team and fought the Crusad­ers with high-caliber play en route to a 74-69 win.

Being back at home with support from the Colgate community gave the team the extra encouragement they needed to put the past losses behind them and focus on the game.

“The atmosphere of the team, both the coaching staff and players com­bined, is absolutely fantastic,” senior guard Kelly Korkowski said. “There is this constant excitement and feeling of ‘family’ that we haven’t had in the past. It is irreplaceable.”

Senior center Tricia Oakes has been showing her amazing skills on the court in the last few games, but her efforts in the Holy Cross game ended up being the deciding factor. She recorded her second consecutive double-double, putting up 25 points and 17 rebounds.

Another key player in the game was junior guard Jhazmine Lynch who proved her importance to the team yet again with 18 points.

“This was a big win for us. The team has been working extremely hard and has been improving this whole season,” soph­omore Kathryn Taylor said. “The Holy Cross game just showed how we can play when we play great team basketball with a lot of energy.”

The game started slowly, with the Raid­ers only shooting 22 percent. The Crusaders dominated most of the first half, but Colgate was able to close the gap, cutting the deficit to three by halftime. First-year guard Missy Repoli contributed 16 points in the game, a career-high.

The second half was exciting for the Raiders. With only two minutes left in regulation, the game was tied at 65 by way of two free throws from Lynch.

Nine points later, the women had won their first game against Holy Cross, ending a 10-game losing streak against the Crusad­ers. The last time the Raiders defeated Holy Cross in women’s basketball was in 2006.

“It has been tough going through so many close games, but we know that we are so close to being the great team we can be and we know that Coach Hays and the rest of the staff can get us there,” Taylor said. “We are looking forward to continuing to prove ourselves in the upcoming games.”

The women are on the road again for their next game, travelling to Washington, D.C. to tip off against American Universi­ty. With a loss haunting them (56-43) only weeks ago in their last game against the Ea­gles, the ladies are choosing to take an opti­mistic outlook and believe in themselves as players and as a team. They are determined to make their recent win the first of many.

“The Patriot League is a very unusual league,” Korkowski said. “It all depends on who shows up that night, because every team is so similar. We truly believe we can be that team.”

With Oakes’s outstanding recent per­formance and the team’s visible cohesion in general, the Raiders should feel confident this upcoming Saturday, February 4 when they play American University at 2 p.m. in the nation’s capital.

Contact Katie Rydell at [email protected].