In an abbreviated season, everything that a team does is magnified. There isn’t much of an opportunity to fix things. A couple of quick losses could results in a fight for survival early in the season.

Parkland girls basketball head coach Ed Ohlson hasn’t had that problem with his Lady Trojans this season. The team has gotten off to a 3-0 start with a win over Central Catholic and back-to-back wins over Whitehall.

Ohlson was high on his team coming into the season and things have played out pretty much how he expected that they might. Lindsay Berger has been her usual strong self and the supporting players that Ohlson thought would provide a lot of production around her have done just that.

Through the early going, Ohlson pointed to senior Sonya Shivok and junior Mo Olenwine as players who have come through in big spots for the team.

“Those two have really played well for us,” said Ohlson. “In that first game against Central Catholic we were down and needed someone to step up and Sonya really played well. She had a tough first half and may have been shaking off some nerves, but she picked things up in the second half and really helped bring us back.”

Olenwine has become a bulldog on defense for Parkland and has continued to develop on the court just as Ohlson believed that she would.

“We put Mo on [Whitehall junior Ella] Laky and she did a really good job against a really good player and we saw just how good she can be for us and how she can really contribute on the defensive side,” Ohlson noted.

The 27-23 win against the Central Catholic (2-1 EPC, 3-2 overall) at Rockne Hall was an impressive win for the team, especially considering that they had to battle back in the second half for a win. The next two games against Whitehall (0-2, 0-2) appeared to be easier wins, with final scores of 47-29 and 41-25, however, Ohlson believes that the Lady Zephyrs could be one of those teams that start to surprise some teams.

In the first game, Berger scored 20 points for the Lady Trojans and Olenwine showed that defense isn’t the only thing that she does well by chipping in with eight points in the win.

“They really fought us and played hard in those two games,” said Ohlson of the games against Whitehall. “They’re one of those teams that are going to be much improved by the end of the season and could surprise some people throughout the year.”

Parkland is done with its games against Whitehall for the season. The schedule has East Penn Conference teams playing each other in a home and away format, which adds a little something to the strategy that teams put together.

“I think it’s interesting because you have that one practice between the games and if you won the first game, girls could start to think ‘we won the first game pretty easily, so we don’t have to worry about the second game too much,’” said Ohlson. “And if you lost, you start working on what you need to do differently. I kind of like having it that way because I don’t think that it’s easy to win both of those games in that situation.”

The Lady Trojans have games against Allen (1-1, 1-2) on back-to-back nights this week before their two-game set with Dieruff (0-3, 0-3) on Saturday and then again next Tuesday. The two games against Emmaus (3-1, 3-1), which follow on the schedule, are split up by a nonconference game against Southern Lehigh (3-2 Colonial, 3-2 overall), which will put Parkland on the court for three nights in a row starting next Thursday.