Dark horse Drake ready to surprise MVC faithful

Column by Carly Grenfell

Grenfell is a junior public relations and management double major and can be reached at carly.grenfell@drake.edu

Here’s the scoop. Your Bulldogs picked up a big win over Missouri State this weekend and looked good in pink uniforms doing it! But above that, it was in front of an amazing crowd all sporting their pink as well.

Our annual Hoops 4 Hope game makes for a special day. I would guess that majority of us know someone who has been affected by cancer. This monster of a disease invades the lives of so many people. Sometimes all we need is an event like this to quickly put things into perspective. It all comes down to fight. And we weren’t just playing for each other and Drake University, but the entire community of Des Moines that has beat the odds and continues to fight off cancer. Here is a quick recap.

We burned up the nets at the start of the game with a 13-0 lead. But as basketball is a game of runs, they were able to bounce back halfway into the first half.

The best part about Saturday afternoon was that we led the entire game. We have struggled thus far when teams go on their runs — but not this time. The Bears beat us in our first matchup of the season. I’d say we still had a little bit of fire in us from that game. We felt prepared and confident we would beat them this time around. That was the difference maker.

Our next games are today at Bradley and Saturday at Northern Iowa — two of our three conference wins. I feel like I say that every game is a big game, but it’s true. If we can snag these two road games, we can gain some momentum to close out the conference season with Evansville and Southern Illinois. This means we can have even more momentum going in the Missouri Valley Conference. Our league is far from determined. It’s such a dogfight! (No pun intended.)

Nothing will be easy, but nothing is impossible, either.

It is that time of the year, my friends. Stay tuned with Drake women’s basketball. I know it’s cliché, but our record does not define us in the least bit. We are ready to finish out the year on a high note with few games left to play. Let the madness begin.