McNeese Women’s Basketball: Southland Conference Media Day

LAKE CHARLES, La. (KPLC) - The McNeese Cowgirls ended the 2022-23 season on somewhat of a high note as they won their first Southland Conference Tournament game under Head Coach Lynn Kennedy before falling in overtime of the second round. This year, in year three under Lynn Kennedy, the Cowgirls are hoping to build on last season, and they feel good with about a month remaining until the year begins.

“We’re excited, we’re going to be a young team but I like the progress we’ve made since August,” said Kennedy. “The chemistry is above and beyond what we could’ve imagined at this point in the season, so we just have to continue that as we get into November, and get into our games, but I like the progress we’ve made so far as a team.”

“Our chemistry is amazing, I’ve never felt that close to my teammates before, I’m international, so we have a lot of people from Spain, from Colombia, from Sweden, from wherever we go from Croatia, so we’re all just together and making it a home away from home, and I love it,” said Emilia Tenbrock. “It’s the chemistry is amazing, I love all my teammates, I want to hang out with all of them, we’re on court, off court and it’s the most important thing because if on court you don’t play together, it’s not going to work.”

One thing McNeese struggled with last season, to no fault of their own, were injuries, and because of it they were never able to find a rhythm, but this season Kennedy feels as though the Cowgirls are versatile, which will help in the long run.

“I think we’re going to be hard to guard because we have seven or eight players that we can go to at any time, and I think we do have a couple of go-to players now. We are on the younger side, but I like where we’re at as far as our execution, especially this early on, we’re doing things we didn’t do all of last year, I think our defense is going to be more intense, we’re going to be more full court, and we’re going to be able to mix it up more than we did last year. We’re going to get back to running and being more open court as well, and get back to playing more of an up-speed tempo that we’re used to playing, so I think it’s going to be more exciting for the fans to see that, especially at home.”

In the preseason poll which was released on Tuesday, the Cowgirls were picked to finish in a tie for fifth, something Kennedy was asked about.

“I think the top teams return their best players, but I do think 1-10 on the women’s side, we’re more competitive than we have been in years past, at least since I’ve been here. Anybody can beat anybody, so I think for us going into this year we just have to worry about McNeese and our program, and really take the next step. We’ve taken a couple of steps the last couple of years, but we really need to take that next step and get to the upper half of the conference and be a team that is consistent night in and night out.”

For the full press conference with Kennedy and Tenbrock, click here.

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