Junior forward Trisha Krewson is in new waters this season as she steps into the Flashes’ leading role on a team with six freshmen and only two returning players.

At this point in the season, the young women’s basketball team is 1-5 and has struggled with finding consistency on both ends of the court. But the one constant has been Krewson.

In six games this season, Krewson averages 10.7 points and 7.0 rebounds per game, which is a team high in both. Krewson, however, is used to this production. During her sophomore season at Bucknell in 2009-10, she averaged 12.4 points in the Patriot League.

Standing 6 feet tall, Krewson utilizes her sizes and strength to be an aggressor to the basket. Due to NCAA transfer rules, Krewson was forced to sit out the 2010-11 season with the Flashes, but she used her time wisely.

“Taking the year off was definitely tough mentally because I did want to be out there with my team,” Krewson said. “It did give me a chance to learn the program and the offense and learn the coaching style and teammates, obviously we don’t have as many back from last year but just to learn the program and it benefited me this year.”

With all Krewson’s down time between practices and games, she stepped up her time in the gym to be truly ready for this season, and it shows.

“I was able to work on my defense playing on the scout team last year all year,” Krewson said. “I spent a lot of extra time in the gym. I stayed on campus all summer and worked out, and I’m in the gym as much as I can, I think it’s a natural quality in me to be a leader so I’m trying to step into a role that Coach Lindsay has set for me.”

Krewson is just one three players on the Flashes with any Division I college basketball experience coming into this season, but the only one who has embraced her role in the offense. Juniors Tamzin Barroilhet and Leslie Schaefer have been nearly absent in the offense all season.

“It’s definitely been affecting our team Tamzin is a great player and hopefully she got a couple of games out of her system, she played well in Arizona,” Krewson said. “She needs to look to be more aggressive and so does Leslie, they’re both great players but I don’t think they are being as aggressive as we need them to be right now.”

With such a young team around her, Krewson has embraced her new leadership role and knows the potential this team possesses. Freshman Jamie Hutcheson and Itziar Llobet are tied for second on the team averaging 9.0 points per game.

Krewson knows her young teammates are committed to each other and the coaches to eventually be successful.

“It’s been difficult but I don’t want to say that in a negative way. We’re obviously going to have some frustrations this season, but I firmly believe that all six of those freshmen are 100 percent for the team,” Krewson said. “They’re going to have their freshmen moments and it’s up to me, Tamzin, Leslie and Diamon to carry them along. It’s going to be hard at times, but I think they all want to get there which makes it not so much of a problem because we know they care for the team.”

With six games down, the Flashes are improving every week in Kent State coach Bob Lindsay’s eyes and he set up a special schedule to get his girls to learn.

“They know that we’re playing our two toughest non-conference opponents back-to-back and coming off some losses,” Lindsay said. “I think we are an improving team, I think we’re showing ourselves that if we can play a little bit longer and a little bit harder we have a chance to be good teams, but that’s down the road… we’ve got some growing pains to go through before we do that.”

The Flashes will enjoy a long break until Dec. 18 when the team hosts Canisius at 2 p.m.

Contact Matt Lofgren at [email protected] and @gonzoEdu.