While some love October because of the fall weather and Halloween, others love October for, well, basketball. The IVCC women’s team will be back in action this month with hopes of kicking off another successful year.

Last season, the Lady Eagles were co-conference Arrowhead champions with a 21-10 record and were 6-2 in conference play.

When asking coach Tom Ptak about if he thinks the team could repeat the success of last year’s team, he said, “That’s the goal.

It’ll be a challenge because we lost four starters. So, we will see new starters this year, but that’s our goal to be conference champs.”

Among the departing sophomores from last year is Daniela Pavlovich, who averaged 16.7 points per game, 3.5 steals per game, and 3.4 assists per game. She led the team in points per game and steals per game; furthermore, she was second on the team in assists per game.

Another loss for the Lady Eagles was Hannah Wolfe, who averaged 12.6 points a game, 8.4 rebounds per game, 1.5 blocks per game. She led the team in rebounds per game and blocks per game; furthermore, she was third in points per game for the team.

Jill Wignes and Ellie Herrmann are two other sophomores who graduated from IV. Ptak said, “They may not show up in the box score in big ways with points but they did the little things and rebounding.”

Even though the Lady Eagles lost team leaders, the Lady Eagles bring back Julia Pohar. She averaged 15 points per game, 4.1 assists per game, and 1.3 steals per game. Respectively that put Pohar as the team’s leader in assist per game, she was second in points per game, and second in steals per game.

Ptak thinks Pohar is ready to take on the next level saying, “Absolutely, she’s been working on that and I think she’s up for the challenge and can do it.”

He also believes Hunter Wright and Quincie Weber will step up as well as returning sophomores. Ptak feels that Pohar, Wright, and Weber were timid in their offensive attack in respect to last year’s sophomores; however, he expects them to be more aggressive and step up this year.

Ptak said he expects more of a team game instead of pounding it into the post and relying on one to two players to score. He added the team will be more pace and space, with more assists and emphasis on the three

Ptak is concerned about post defense and team rebounding,

The Eagles bring back six players from last season as well as six new ones. The season begins in Rockford on Oct. 14.