Through much of the 2024-2025 OUA season, veteran Emilie Lafond and rookie Cadence Pecore constituted a highly productive one-two punch for the Laurentian Voyageurs women's basketball team.
While the start of the 2025-2026 campaign is still some five months away, L.U. head coach Jason Hurley can easily visualize where both of his star players stand to take a nice step forward in production.
Part of that lies in the benefit of a more than solid recruiting class, with Scarborough Blues standout Anika Fermin hopefully opening the door to opportunities, to some extent, for her fellow guard, Cadence Pecore.
"Adding Anika at the point guard position will allow Cadence to get some reps off the ball as a two guard," suggested Hurley. "She won't have the challenge of bringing the ball up the court nearly as much."
For as much as Pecore would finish second to Lafond in team scoring, averaging just under a dozen points per game, the fact remains that her six highest scoring affairs all came between November 2nd and January 11th, never exceeding the 13-point plateau in her final nine outings of the year.
The wear and tear that she faced down the stretch last winter is something that coach Hurley would like to insulate, to a degree, next year.
In a perfect world, Emilie Lafond will follow-up a second team all-star 18.5 points per game season by challenging for Player of the Year honours.
An aggressive reach, to be sure, but one that coach Hurley noted is hardly outside of the realm of possibilities.
"We've always thought that passing could be a big part of her game but we really did not see it much until that last game of the year," said Hurley, with Lafond posting a 20-point / nine rebound / eight assist effort in a playoff loss to the Brock Badgers.
"We think she can be more of a facilitator from the high post."
Joining Fermin as additions to the 2025-2026 roster are Alexia Schryburt, Riley Zulack, Alexa Gvora, Alyssa Gvora, Charlotte Glover and Alisha Calliste, with local product Claudia Pellerin also looking to make a return to the court in the fall.
That will help re-stock the cupboards for a team that is expected to see the likes of Amber May, Princess Bernardino, Aneisha Rismond, Melanie Cloutier, Lauren Robertson-Martin, Jasmine Lewis and Lyndelle Joseph all move on.
"I think we're a little more athletic on the wing now, so we'll push out and do a little more pressure defences," said Hurley.
There will be one other new face in the mix at L.U. next year, albeit a very familiar one to Sudbury basketball folks. With a seven year career in professional basketball overseas now behind her, Lockerby Composite graduate Samantha Cooper joins the Voyageurs coaching staff while pursuing her PhD in Human Kinetics.
The Voyageurs posted a record of 7-15 in regular season play this past winter and were eliminated in the first round of the playoffs following an 81-72 setback at the hands of Brock.
