The girls’ basketball season has been off to a rocky start with the team’s first loss against Independent on Dec. 2.

“We have a difficult schedule until Christmas,” assistant coach Justin Regehr said, “but I definitely think we’ll be very much improved later in the year.”

Varsity players for the Kingman tournament included seniors Erica Ebenkamp and Janae Pauly, juniors Sabrina Bellar, Shannon Drouhard, Lacey Pauly, and Amanda Smith, sophomores Audrey Doffing, Makenzie Curry, Kayla Koester, and Sammie Osner, and freshmen Kara Koester and Tori Kunz. Junior varsity players for the tournament included juniors Olga Diaz and Siri Bakksjo, sophomores Lexi Fisher, Maddie Koester, Alivia Lange, Leslie Mies, and Molly Schmanke, and freshmen Adyson Koester, Karlee Osner, Madison Pauly, and Jayden Stanley.

“I was excited for the first tournament,” Ebenkamp said. “I like to play, and the first tournament is always fun.”

Their next set of games was the Kingman tournament. Other teams competing included Wellington, Haven, Kingman, Sunrise Academy and Sterling. Games were Dec. 6, 8 and 10.

“I think we did pretty good,” Adyson said. “We shared the ball and shot well.”

The varsity girls lost the first match against Wellington, while JV won, and both teams moved on to play Haven. This game was the highest scoring, 55 points, with Bellar as the top scorer of the game. Varsity later played Kingman and ended the tournament with second place and a record of 1-2. JV later played Kingman and ended the night as the JV tournament champions and a record of 3-0.

“I think we did pretty good considering we made it to the championship game,” Sammie said.