Monash Women's Basketball takes Div 1 by storm, winning 2019 Unisports Nationals

The Monash Women’s Basketball team were promoted from Unisport Nationals Division 2 this year, only to win gold less than three months later at the 2019 Division 1 Nationals in the Gold Coast last week.

The Monash girls defeated the University of Melbourne 76-71 in a seesawing gold medal match on Thursday. Scores were level at quarter time, but the lead swung between the two teams for the rest of the game, before Monash just managed to gain the upper hand with a few minutes remaining on the clock.

The path to finals was just as competitive, but the Monash team only conceded one match for the entire competition, losing to the University of the Sunshine Coast by one point in the final match of the main draw.

Jacqui Trotto said it was a privilege to captain

TeamMONASH at the 2019 Div 1 Nationals.

Monash defeated 2018 champions Deakin University by just one point on the buzzer during their third game of the event.

TeamMONASH captain and basketball team organiser Jacqui Trotto said the team gained confidence from this win.

“I think we were down the whole game until literally the last three seconds. It was pretty close,” Jacqui said.

“We were definitely confident in the team’s ability. We knew that if we played our basketball and just did what we wanted to do, that we were going to be good.”

Last week was the first time a Women’s Basketball team had competed at Div 1 Nationals since 2014.

Although the Monash team had to overcome more hurdles than most to earn their place again in Div 1, Jacqui said their preparation was rewarded by the pennant win on Thursday.

“It was such a great result, especially because we’d come up from Div 2 as well. All our hard work was kind of payed off,” she said.

The team had strong support from the Men's 

Basketball and other teams throughout the 

competition. 

“It kind of helped us too, because it gave us more time to prepare, we started earlier than what we would’ve usually.”

Several of the athletes were also members of the Monash 3x3 basketball team, which lost to the University of Technology Sydney on the buzzer of the final in August this year.

But this time around Monash was able to secure a commanding win over the strong team, defeating UTS by 24 points in the Div 1 semi-final.

“It was super exciting, especially because for the 3x3 earlier this year, me and a couple of the other girls came second in that, so we definitely wanted our redemption,” Jacqui said.

“It was definitely a good feeling. That was probably the best game.”

The Men’s Basketball team also performed admirably in a tough pool, finishing in 5^th place after winning five of their eight matches.

Written by Nell O’Shea Carre.