The No. 1 TCU rifle team will work to continue to score high as it shoots next against No. 3 West Virginia at home this Saturday.

Last Saturday, the team shot against undefeated No. 2 Kentucky and won 4,703-4,693.
The team broke both a university record for the highest aggregate score and Kentucky’s winning streak of 18 matches.

Coach Karen Monez said she wanted the team to stay on track with the smallbore competition for the match against West Virginia. Against Kentucky, the team shot its second-highest team smallbore score for the season.

“Performing at our best is always the biggest challenge,” Monez said. “To win against a team like West Virginia, we’ve got to be at the top of our game.”

The rifle team will also try to extend its regular season winning streak of 26 matches, the longest in TCU rifle history.

One advantage of the university’s rifle team is the depth of experience of some team members, Monez said. Juniors Sarah Beard, Sarah Scherer and Caitlin Morrissey are performing at a high technical level and are shooting the scores the team needed to win, she said.

Beard said she would focus on honing her skills to shoot more quickly and more accurately for the next match. She said rifle was a very mental sport and viewers often did not understand how difficult it was when it appeared that the team sometimes stands around.

“It’s almost a roller coaster going on in every single person’s head, and in their mentality,” Beard said.

She said the team members were consistently working on perfecting their techniques from match to match.

Sophomore Catherine Green said when the team gets ready to shoot, each person thought more about improving her own performance rather than beating the opponents or each other.

Green said when she did well on one event during a match, she would focus more on what she needed to improve in the following week’s practices.

TCU vs. West Virginia

When: Saturday, Jan. 28, 2012 All Day

Where: TCU Rifle Range