By RICHIE HALL
The University girls basketball team hasn’t played a game yet, but coach Justin Blanding said his team is “really far ahead at this point.”
The Trailblazers will open their season Tuesday at Park Tudor, and will do so with a senior-loaded squad. University has seven seniors on its roster, plus its top returning scorer, junior Lindsey Syrek. They were part of a team that last year won the Trailblazers’ first sectional championship in six years.
With all that experience, University has been able to get right into game mode.
“They’ve been doing this for a while,” said Blanding. “They know the system, so when practice started, the seniors just led everything. And so now we can already get into game planning and things like that. So we’re far ahead. I really like where we are right now.”
Syrek, a 6-foot-1 forward, averaged a double-double last season with 18.5 points and 13.8 rebounds per game. She also was solid on defense, with 4.0 blocks per contest.
After Syrek, the seniors take over. Brooke Andrus added 9.4 points and also led the team in assists by handing out 4.9 per game. The Snyder twins were solid as well: Lily Snyder contributed 8.4 points, 3.2 rebounds, 2.8 assists and 2.8 steals per game. Lucy Snyder averaged 5.5 points and 4.2 rebounds.
Jhordan McGuire didn’t get to play until the end of the season due to an injury, but made a big impact in her five games, with 5.2 points and 4.6 rebounds per game. Haley Tomlinson helped out with 4.8 points and 3.0 rebounds per contest.
If that weren’t enough, University got a talented transfer from Carmel, junior Maddi Sears. She averaged 3.3 points per game for the Greyhounds last year.
“Practice is pretty competitive,” said Blanding. He noted that in 26 games last season, the Trailblazers had 21 different starting lineups. With all the talent on this year’s team, mixing up the starters could be the status quo again.
“I’m comfortable starting any one of the 10 that we dress,” said Blanding. “I don’t think we have a lineup at this point, but there’s a lot of people that can get it done for us.”
There are also two freshmen in the varsity lineup: Anne Gibboney and Arrion Sherrod. Blanding said that making the transition to high school ball has “been kind of a shock to them,” but they do have seniors there to help them along the way.
“Those kids being young coming in, they’re coming in at a good time, because these seniors are leading them,” said Blanding.
University is ranked No. 5 in the coaches’ Class 1A pre-season poll. After their first game at Park Tudor, the ‘Blazers will play at Clinton Central on Friday, then host their first home game Tuesday, Nov. 13 against Waldron.
VARSITY ROSTER
Seniors: Brooke Andrus, Jenna Blakely, Hallie Harrison, Jhordan McGuire, Lily Snyder, Lucy Snyder, Haley Tomlinson.
Juniors: Elise Nachlis, Maddi Sears, Lindsey Syrek.
Freshmen: Anne Gibboney, Arrion Sherrod.
JUNIOR VARSITY ROSTER
Junior: Elise Nachlis.
Freshmen: Bayan Abdullah, Abla Abumahfouz, Audrey Blocksom, Sydney Epstein, Anne Gibboney, Abby Hannon, Olivia Morrison, Ria Narayanan, Arrion Sherrod.