After finishing last season without any wins, the girls’ JV basketball team has already improved with two wins almost halfway through the season.

The team won their home opener and first game of the season against Northwest on Dec. 7. The final score of the game was 31-26, led by freshman Avni Koenig and sophomore Maddy Mathew.

In the win against Northwest the team started out slow, going down 6-0, and trailed for the entire first quarter and beginning of the second quarter. In the middle of the second quarter the JV girls went on a stellar 10-0 run and never looked back. After storming back to take the lead at the end of the second quarter, the team never lost the lead again.

After getting their first win in nearly two years, the team fell to Walter Johnson 28-21 to bring them to a record of 1-1. This was the start of a five-game slide as the team started the season 1-5 before winter break. “We were really set on going to the new year with a new vigor, be more intense in practice so it shows in the games, [and we] want to work more as a team and be accountable as a team,” freshman Emory Scofield said.

After falling to Walter Johnson, the team went on to lose 55-31 to Seneca Valley, 38-27 to Damascus, 32-21 to Richard Montgomery, and then 66-8 against Whitman. “I think we’ve gotten a lot better since the start of the season, especially on our press break and executing our plays. We just need to get better at keeping intensity throughout the fourth quarter and staying aggressive,” freshman Avni Koenig said.

Two of the team’s losses came in part due to some of the players on the team struggling with Covid. These two games were against Seneca Valley and Damascus, which both ended in 11-point losses. “I feel that the JV girls’ team could have won at least one of these games if it wasn’t for Covid. The boys’ JV team was lucky and we only lost one of those two games with no Covid problems,” freshman Chase Mitchell said.

When the team came back to school after winter break, they looked to change the script and they had a great chance to do so against rival Churchill. After coming in on the last day of winter break to practice for the game the next day, the team felt like they were ready. The team ended up destroying Churchill with a final score of 52-24 and it will give them a huge boost into the new year.

After the strong win against Churchill the girls lost a close game to Walter Johnson for the second time of the year. The final score was 32-23. The next matchup for the team will be away against Magruder on Jan. 11 at 5:30 pm.