Women’s basketball player Jacquie Klotz ’18 has made quite an impact in her inaugural freshman season.

In the Bison’s game against Loyola on Feb. 18, Klotz recorded a career-high 26 points and 10 rebounds. Her accomplishments thus far have included two sweeps of weekly Patriot League awards. She was awarded Rookie of the Week and the Lids Team Sports Women’s Basketball Player of the Week for her stand out performances against both Army and Loyola, and in her Feb. 21 game against Boston University, she scored 19 points, 10 rebounds, and had four assists.

Colored by an extremely successful high school career, one which includes accolades as the 2014 New Jersey Times Area Player of the Year and three-time New Jersey All Prep, Klotz entered her freshman year basketball season with a surprisingly less remarkable condition: a concussion.

“It took some time to come back from it,” Klotz said.

Klotz credits her “skilled and experienced team” around her for encouraging her every step of the way.

Clearly, Klotz bounced back quickly. As soon as she healed, she was eager to get playing time in with her new team. Klotz actually cites her biggest accomplishment this season as learning to play smoothly as a team.

“It took a while to figure out the offense and get used to moving with my teammates. Now I am happy that I can be on the court and contribute. We began the season a little out of sync, and now we are reading each other and playing off each other well,” Klotz said.

On a more personal level, Klotz marks her progress in her improved defensive skills, in particular her closeouts, as heavily aided by a tight and rigorous training schedule.

“I do a lot of shooting workouts, where I work on the shots that I am likely to take in games. Before games, I have a set of shots that I like to get up before our warm-ups start. It’s something I have done since middle school,” Klotz said.

Klotz admits that training isn’t work all the time, and that spending time in the gym with her teammates is fun.  

As a rookie, Klotz has a long Orange and Blue Career ahead of her, one that will certainly build on the remarkable skills and talent she has developed this season. As this year’s competition season comes to an end, Klotz says that she and the team have been talking a lot about what they can improve on in Patriot League play.

“We have been talking about beating a team by more than a few points. I am glad that we have [started taking] a comfortable lead and [finishing] out the game maintaining that lead,” Klotz said.

STATS

Year: Freshman

Position: Point Guard

Hometown: West Windsor, N.J.

High School: The Lawrenceville School

Game Averages (past five games)

Points: 17.2

Rebounds: 9.2

Assists: 2.0

Shooting Percentage: 60 percent