The Yeowomen improved to 2–0 with a dominant 85–57 win over the Thiel College Tomcats Monday night.

The backcourt of senior guard Lindsey Bernhardt and first-year guard Alexandra Stipano combined for 42 total points, blaz­ing the way for Oberlin. Bernhardt finished the game with 26 points, one shy of a career high, as well as going a perfect 8–8 from the charity stripe and chipping in three assists in the victory. Stipano contributed five as­sists toward the winning effort in her first collegiate road game. Senior guard Caro­line Hamilton also had an impressive per­formance, adding nine points and a career-high seven assists in her starting capacity.

The Yeowomen pounced on the Tomcats early, starting the game with a 17–4 run and finishing the first period with a 23–7 lead. Bernhardt said that the Yeowomen’s depth as well as overall skill and condition­ing contributed to their early success.

“Our speed, athleticism and scoring ability has allowed us to speed up the pace of our game, which has caused teams to struggle to keep up with us,” Bernhardt said. “We have a deep bench, so fatigue is not an issue for our team, which has al­lowed us to run teams off the court.”

Stipano also said the Yeowomen’s speedy pace and their game-time readiness factored into Monday night’s victory.

“The team stepped on the court ready to play,” Stipano said. “We pushed the ball up the court and got plenty of open looks from good passes and quick transitions. When we are in the zone like that, it is hard for any team to stop us, especially right out of the gate.”

Oberlin’s success was not limited to the offensive side of the court. The Yeowomen held the Tomcats to 7-of-38 shooting in the first half, heading into the locker room with a comfortable 45–22 lead. Oberlin finished the game holding Thiel to 26 percent shoot­ing and winning the rebounding battle by an impressive 66–38 margin.

Prior to the game against Thiel, the Yeowomen started its season with a com­manding 75–44 victory against the Olivet College Comets in Saturday night’s home opener.

Ten different Yeowomen scored in the game, led by a career-high performance by Hamilton, who scored 19 points in the win, and a game-high 12 rebound effort by sophomore guard Tyler Parlor, who also chipped in seven points in her first colle­giate start. Oberlin’s bench came up big, contributing 39 points in the win. Junior forward Eleanor Van Buren led the second unit with nine points and six rebounds in 16 productive minutes of play.

With last year’s historic season in the rearview mirror, Hamilton said that the Yeo­women hope to accomplish even more dur­ing this year’s campaign.

“We do want to be at the top of the con­ference this season, and we want to host another home playoff game,” Hamilton said. “We’re all extremely motivated, and we un­derstand the hard work we have to put in ev­ery day to achieve that goal. We are just tak­ing it one practice and one game at a time and focusing on getting better and growing.”

When asked about the Yeowomen’s up­coming tournament, Head Coach Kerry Jenkins said that the keys to success were very simple and that the Yeowomen were more than prepared for the upcoming competition.