 | Guard Anke De Mondt is in her third season with Halcon Avenida Salamanca and helped her team reach the Final of EuroLeague Women in 2009 by contributing over 10 points per game. She also has extensive National Team experience with Belgium and has played in major tournaments such as EuroBasket Women. Anke is writing for FIBA Europe to give us her insight on the 2009-10 EuroLeague Women season. |
Hello everybody! So here we are and of course this is my very first time writing in 2010 - a whole new decade! First I want to wish you all a very happy new year and I hope it will be one with lots of fun and excitement, not only in basketball, but also in life too.
I know it's been a long time since I last wrote one of my postcards for you but we have been so very busy in the last few months with lots of games both in Europe and here in Spain. I had just four days at home for my Christmas break (which was certainly very nice) and then we re-started practice pretty quickly again on the 29th of December!
After this, we had our first game of the second round in Liga Femenina on the 3rd of January and then the weekend after, we played in the Copa de la Reina. This is a tournament for the top teams in Spain and in the end we reached the final but just fell short against Ros Casares by only two points. We had mixed feelings after that loss since we were of course disappointed but it was also comforting for us to know that we had a great tournament and that we were out there and really challenging.
Our first game of EuroLeague Women in 2010 went very well for us. We won easily in Villeneuve d'Ascq against ESB Lille Metropole and it was particularly great for me as there were around 80 of my fellow Belgians at the game to witness my eight three-pointers! I was of course very happy to share this experience with my family and friends who came to see our game and even better when I was able to enjoy some time with them after the game too!
Last weekend I have to say that we had a really bad game in Liga Femenina against another EuroLeague Women club - Rivas Ecopolis. This is one big reason why we feel that we really need to pick things up against Famila Basket Schio in our last game of the Qualifying Round.
The last round is always an interesting time since every team will have a better idea of who they will be playing in the last sixteen of the competition. I feel that there is still so much to play for and possible movement in the rankings and I can't wait to see what happens, not just in our own group but right across the other groups also.
Finally I want to share with you all the fact that my team, together with all the other sports teams and sports fans living in Salamanca have been coming together to support a good cause. Everyone is showing they have good hearts by donating a lot of money to support the people caught up in the earthquake tragedy in Haiti.
As part of this, I was able to go to a radio station where I was featured in the main sports programme of the day. It gave an opportunity for people to not only donate their money but to also bid money for shirts, shoes, gloves and many different sporting items from different teams and athletes. It is a situation that really puts everything into perspective.
I will speak to you all soon, probably as we get into the knockout stages of this years EuroLeague Women!
