Defending CAA Women’s Basketball Champion Elon Hold First Practice of 2017-18 Season

ELON, N.C. – Elon University women’s basketball held its first practice of the 2017-18 season Monday, Oct. 2. The Phoenix practiced for two-plus hours in Alumni Gym before going to finish the day with a weights session in Alumni Field House.

After practice, seventh-year head coach Charlotte Smith provided her thoughts on the team’s first practice:

“It feels great to be back out on the floor. I feel like I’m in my element when I am out there on the court coaching. We were really excited for Day 1 and excited for everything the freshmen brought to practice today. We’ve been talking about there being a learning curve, but if you work hard, that makes up for it. We were impressed with how they came out and were really sharp and focused. We’re just trying to simplify things and master a few things one day at a time.”

“The goal today was to talk about defense. That’s something we talked about quite a bit last year was that we need to control the controllable – defense and rebounding. So we started out with the first hour of practice solely committed to the defense. Then we worked on some motion offense and we’re trying to perfect that. I feel like the freshmen have done a really good job of catching on. We’ve simplified the packages to being able to defend and to run our motion offense and we’ll expand from there as we work toward November with our exhibition and the season opener against Winthrop.”

Season tickets for the 2017-18 campaign, the final season in Alumni Gym, are on sale now through the Elon Ticket Office. Tickets can be purchased online, over the phone at 336-278-6750, or in person at the Elon Ticket Office located inside the Koury Athletic Center on Elon’s campus. For additional information, please contact the Elon Ticket Office at 336-278-6750 or email athtickets@elon.edu.