Parker Perry

The men’s basketball team is not the University of Akron’s only high performing team.

While the men are on a 17-game winning streak, the women are also playing well and are poised for a Mid-American Conference tournament run.

Akron (17-7, 8-3, MAC) is on a five-game winning streak. They have defeated rivals Bowling Green, Buffalo, Eastern Michigan, Miami and Ball State. The listed teams are nothing to scoff at either – all of them are bidding for the top spot in the MAC besides Eastern Michigan, which won the tournament last season.

Head basketball coach Jodi Kest said after their most recent win against Ball State that her team played well.

“I was really happy with our kids’ effort in the first half,” Kest said. “We didn’t shoot the ball well, but I think our kids did a terrific job on defense and that kept us in the game.”

The Zips have been a good shooting team this season, and currently lead the conference in offense. They have also been able to equal their offensive attack with good defense throughout their recent stretch of wins.

Ball State opened the game with a 7-0 run while the Zips failed to hit their first eight shots. Akron did not get frazzled; they came up with a run of their own to tie the game with less than two minutes. The Zips took and kept the lead and entered halftime with a 23-20 advantage.

The second half was all Akron, which is indicative of how the winning streak has been thus far.

Akron outscored Ball State 41-32 and ran the Cardinals out of their building. Junior forward Rachel Tecca had 10 points and senior Taylor Ruper had nine. Though the two shined through, it was a team effort as a total of seven players scored in the half.

During their winning streak, Akron has won the second half in four of them. Only Eastern Michigan was able to defeat the Zips in that facet, but only by one.

The Zips will next play Kent State on Saturday at Kent State.