This upcoming weekend holds no games on the docket for the Waynesburg women’s basketball team’s schedule. In order for the team to enjoy the weekend off, however, the result  Wednesday night must be a win against Geneva College. The Golden Tornadoes will visit the Rudy Marisa Fieldhouse for a 5:30 tip. Waynesburg beat Geneva to get its first Presidents’ Athletic Conference win, 93-76 Jan. 4.

In order to obtain their fourth Presidents’ Athletic Conference win, the Jackets have some homework to do. It’s highlighted by finding out how to stop the PAC’s second leading scorer, junior Lauren Tipton.

Averaging 18.5 points a game, the 6-foot-1 forward is the powerhouse in Geneva’s offense. Tipton had a double-double in the most recent game against Washington & Jefferson scoring 24 points, and pulling down 14 rebounds.

For the Jackets, this is one of their primary focuses for Wednesday night, and head coach Sam Jones is doing everything he can to adjust.

“We’re just going to try and not let her catch the ball where she’s comfortable,” Jones said, “It’s about taking her out of her rhythm and making her uncomfortable, work a little harder for some of her points. (We) might try some different defensive strategies on her to make her life a little more uncomfortable.”

Junior guard Andrea Orlosky went into further detail about possibly doubling the post, and the second defender will come off a weaker player.

“Brooke [Fuller] or Leighton [Croft] hopefully might be the ones guarding [Tipton],” Orlosky said. “Whoever is guarding that [weaker] girl at that time, [when] the ball gets passed in the post, that girl is going to leave whoever that bad shooter is.”

The Jackets need to be wise in choosing this “weaker player.” One player on Geneva that shouldn’t be overlooked is junior guard Emily Melnek. She scored 25 points against W&J last Wednesday, 21 of which coming on three pointers.

Another strength of the Golden Tornadoes is running the floor.

“Lauren Tipton did that [last time],” Orlosky said, “especially for a post [player], that’s good.”

On the offensive end, Waynesburg needs to take care of the basketball according to Jones. 

“The more we keep the basketball the better chance we have at doing something with it,” Jones said, “make the extra pass and get easy shots.”

The last time these two teams played, Waynesburg came out with a convincing victory, outscoring Geneva, 44-30 in the second half.

The task of defeating the Golden Tornadoes has been done, but in order for the Jackets to go into the weekend happy, it must be done again,

“We’re taking it one at a time,” said Jones, “this is an important game for us, so we are just focused on [Wednesday].”