River Forest, Ill. — The Concordia Chicago women's basketball team (2-3) takes their two-game winning streak on the road this weekend to face the Aurora Spartans (3-0).
The Cougars put their non-conference struggles behind them last weekend, starting off conference play with a 2-0 record for the second time in three seasons under Head Coach Lauren Martin. The team is surging with confidence heading into back-to-back battles with the Spartans.
"We had a solid string of practices this week in preparation for the AU series," Martin said. "We're going to take one game at a time and control what we can. There's nothing like game day and our girls are ready to go out and get after it again this weekend!"
The team worked on both ends of the ball last weekend as they earned their first two victories. They scored more points than in any of their three previous games and allowed fewer points on the defensive end as well, holding Rockford to just 46 points on Friday.
It was the usual story for CUC in their wins over the Regents, with the duo of sophomore guards Bailey Steinkamp (Cary, Ill.) and Tara Hastings (New Lenox, Ill.) combining for nearly 60 percent of the scoring on the weekend. Additional contributions were made by Mikalah Ellis (Chicago, Ill.), who is continuing to build her role in the Cougars rotation. The sophomore newcomer scored in double figures both nights against Rockford.
The Spartans had no non-conference tune ups this season, but nonetheless are perfect thus far. They opened the season with an impressive 99-67 handling of Dominican, and most recently had a weekend sweep of their own over Rockford. They gave up just 32 points in the second game against Rockford, proving they are capable of dominating both ends of the floor.
Aurora is led by guards Crystal Rios and Julie Galauner, who enter the weekend averaging 20.7 and 19.3 PPG, respectively. The senior Galauner dropped 30 points in the season opener against Dominican and Rios, a junior, has yet to score less than 16 in a game this year. The matchups at the guard position this weekend will certainly be something to keep an eye on.
The teams split their pair of head-to-head matchups a season ago, including the Cougars playing spoiler to Aurora's senior day in the season finale. Concordia leads the all-time series 15-10.
Friday's game will tip-off at 7 p.m., with Saturday's beginning at 5. A stream to both contests can be found on
Aurora Athletics' website.
