Women’s basketball Head Coach Heather Semeniuk knew going down that Idaho-based Lewis-Clark State College was essentially using the Lakers for their own purposes, but practice can go both ways.

After some reshuffling and inviting offers, the women dropped both games to Lewis- Clark State College 96-46 and 96-32.

“We were originally supposed to play a college in Walla Walla, one that we would‘ve been more competitive with” Semeniuk explains, “But we ended up playing Lewis-Clark, the defending NAIA champions with only one loss last season. They play on a completely different level. Being an American College, their players are often taller, faster, and stronger. They could easily compete with the top CIS teams up here.”

Association rules in the United States allow university teams to contribute two preseason games to their regular season W-L record. This often leads to American colleges inviting weaker teams from Canada down on an all-expenses-paid trip to loose.

Semeniuk summed up the trek: “After Walla Walla fell through, Lewis-Clark was very anxious to have us down. The rules down there are much more physical than Canadian rules, and they used that (size) to their advantage and pressed us hard. They were up our nose all game long. Often once teams have pulled out a 40-point lead they will play the second string, but Lewis-Clark kept their starters out and really tried to beat us by as much as they could. We knew going down there that this would be a leaning experience, but the girls didn’t back down.”

Even though the women may have felt a bit like punching bags once the weekend was over, there’s always fun to be had in extended team road trips.

“The girls still had a lot of fun,” continued Semeniuk, “This is a learning experience, and we look forward to the start of our regular season.”

The team travelled to Idaho without 4th year guard Katie Woodman who sustained a knee injury in last weekend's game vs. Thompson Rivers University. The scoring was evenly spread out in Friday night's game with Megan Kolman leading the way with 10 points and 6 rebounds. Kim Whelpton and Jen Bridgemen each tallied 9 points and 4 rebounds. In the Saturday game, Bailey Radley led all Laker scorers with 10 points.