By Daniel Kerwin

The women’s basketball team played a heavy schedule during January, finishing with a 4-6 record for the month, all of their games against MIAC competition.So far this season the team has a 7-10 overall record and a 6-8 conference record. With Wednesday night’s 60-51 win over St. Mary’s, the team has already matched the overall win total from last year and surpassed its number of conference wins.

Last Saturday, the team had its highest point total in seven years in an 87-76 win over St. Catherine, in a match-up where both teams were essentially playing a home game. The team’s last two wins halted a three game losing streak, providing vital momentum as the team heads down the final stretch.

Despite the losing record, the majority of the players are playing as well as they ever have. Trina PaStarr ’10, Alyssa Lunde ’10 and Majra Mucic ’11 all had career highs in scoring in the game against St. Catherine with 27, 22 and 19 points respectively. Ann Baltzer ’10 also scored her career high in the month in a 61-72 loss to Hamline. Baltzer has recorded five double-doubles on the season and leads the MIAC in field-goal percentage.

Eartha Bell ’10 also leads a MIAC category, pacing all players in the conference with 64 steals.

Macalester is currently tied for seventh in the MIAC with nine games left in the conference schedule. With a strong finish, the team stands a good chance of making the MIAC Playoffs, in which the conference’s top six teams compete for the championship. This is a promising situation for such a young team, with only two upperclassmen on the roster, both of them juniors.

The remaining games begin tomorrow afternoon with an important home game against Concordia. The rest of the team’s games will all be in the Twin Cities, with five of the last six being held at St. Catherine’s, Macalester’s home away from home.