Follow the Cougars on Twitter
Send Cougar updates to my email
Get Text Updates

Watch Live

The second season tips-off tonight, Feb. 23, as the Cougar women's basketball team opens play in the 2011 Upper Midwest Athletic Conference Tournament.

The women play first at 5:30 p.m. against Martin Luther, with the men set to follow after at 7:30 p.m. against Bethany Lutheran.

If you can't make it to Jim Gremmels Court, be sure to catch the live broadcast of each game on the Cougar Sports Network, especially with the expanded coverage!

It will be the third meeting of the season for the Cougars and Knights, with Morris holding wins in each previous meeting.

The Cougar women own 81-59 and 77-70 victories over the Knights this season, on their way to a 19-6 overall record and perfect 14-0 UMAC season. Martin Luther wrapped up 2010-11 with a 10-14 overall mark and 7-7 record in league play to finish in fourth place.

The other women's semifinal has No. 2 seed Northwestern hosting No. 3 Northland.

UMMCougars.org recently caught up with the team to get some thoughts from the players as they head into the UMAC Tournament.

On capping a perfect conference season …
- In four years Northland is the only place I had never won, so to beat them in their gym for the first time to go 14-0 was pretty special for me. – Diane Blommel
- It felt pretty good...it's not everyday that you accomplish something like that. – Brandi Cresap
- It finally felt real, we could relax and celebrate knowing that all of our hard work was accomplished and we had a perfect season. – Alisha Schuerman
- It was amazing, and the idea is hard to grasp because we still have playoffs. – Jenni Noordmans

On how they felt heading into last weekend, with a chance at finishing undefeated…
- Honestly, scared. Because I know we all wanted to go 14-0 really bad and I haven't won at Northland until now. So knowing that, and the fact someone beating us would make their season was scary. – Kaila Lindsay
- It felt great to have won and to have some of the pressure taken off us for the next weekend, but we looked at the games as just the same. – Emily Mehr
- We just thought of it as another opportunity for us and tried not to think about it too much. – Abby McDaniel
- We were really happy not to have the stress of needing to win. But we also knew that we weren't finished. We wanted that 14-0 perfect record. – Kelsey Erickson

On being back-to-back UMAC Champions…
- It feels great! Winning one is tough in itself, but then to be able to be apart of two, back-to-back, is pretty special. – Brandi Cresap
- It feels really great, it's been an amazing time the past two seasons, we have been working very hard in practice and both seasons have just been a blast. – Tara Thielke
- I feel relieved! At least now Heather and I can say that we didn't screw up the team. – Abby Fragodt
- For me, the idea hasn't sunk in yet. But I try not to even think about it because we have to kick it in overdrive now for playoffs – Jenni Noordmans

Some feelings in the final seconds of the Northwestern win…
- Wow that was nerve racking! But we have a lot of confidence in our defense and our ability to finish games. So even though it came down to the last seconds I always felt like we would come out on top. – Diane Blommel
- I honestly did start to get a little nervous and thought “we can't let this slip away” but I believed we would pull through. – Brandi Cresap
- I tried my best to keep calm and not stress, but I was definitely nervous as the clock ran down. – Emily Mehr
- I was really nervous! Northwestern had everything fall their way but we still pulled it out. – Kelsey Erickson
- We can do this, just gotta stay focused and do all the little things. – Jenni Noordmans

On keeping the momentum going…
- Keep doing what we've been doing...playing hard, together, and one game-one task at time. – Brandi Cresap
- Just keep on doing what we have been doing and focus on one game at a time. – Abby McDaniel
- Just like we have all season, live by our Philosophy “one game at a time, work together, and UPA!” – Alisha Schuerman
- By continuing to practice hard everyday and bring the same intensity and determination into playoffs – Jenni Noordmans

On what they learned from last year's UMAC Tournament…
- That anything can happen and you have to come out ready to play every night, because on any given night any team can beat you. – Kaila Lindsay
- We can never underestimate a team. We didn't come ready to play last year and it will not happen again. – Diane Blommel
- You have to be ready from the get-go. It's tournament time and we know what's at stake. We have to come out intense, focused, and give it everything we've got. – Brandi Cresap
- Stay focused, humble, and play as a team!! – Jenni Noordmans

On the team's mentality this week…
- Well, we took the weekend to enjoy our undefeated conference season but Monday morning we turned our focus to Wednesday which is a completely new season. – Diane Blommel
- Same as always. Work hard, play their personnel, play our game, focus on one game at a time. – Emily Mehr
- Just working that much harder, we need to push ourselves in practice, and again we can not overlook any teamm, anything can happen – Tara Thielke
- Stay focused and remind ourselves that we have a lot more to accomplish. – Abby Fragodt
- Don't get complacent because we have WORK to do! One game at a time! – Jenni Noordmans