The No 12. WSU women’s rowing team will begin their spring season against No. 18 Gonzaga at 8:30 a.m on Saturday at the Wawawai Landing along the Snake River.

“We can hardly wait to race,” Head Coach Jane LaRiviere said. “It has been a long winter, so we’re just ready to host Gonzaga.”

The Cougar rowing team returns from a five-month off-season break, which featured winter training in Arizona.

Senior Mihaela-Teodora Berindei said it was a great experience to train in Arizona.

“It is always nice to be on the water during the winter time,” Berindei said. “We got to be in the water every day and in the afternoon, we would go hike.”

After returning from sunny Arizona, the Cougars returned to regular indoor training in Pullman. This was a longer winter than usual due to cold weather, but the rowing team still logged hours at the gym.

Junior Jenna Kennedy said the long winter was not a factor during training. She said as long as the whole team held a “hardcore” training mindset at each practice, the result will be a stronger team.

During that break, the team was voted No. 12 in the 2017 US Rowing/Collegiate Rowing Coaches Association preseason poll, which extends the Cougars’ top-15 ranking to 20 straight weeks, dating back to the spring 2015 season.

While the Cougars did not get a ranking as high as they may have liked, Kennedy said she tries not to pay too much attention to the number.

“The poll is based upon what we did last year,” Kennedy said. “I don’t really get all too excited about it because there could be a team out there that sneaks past everyone else.”

The Cougars will open their season against a tough Gonzaga team that is ranked six spots below WSU.

Since the regatta (a series of boat races) on Saturday will be the season opener, Berindei believes the event will be more of a trial-and-error meet so the team can build from its mistakes.

“As coach LaRiviere says, ‘it will be the hardest form of training,’” Berindei said. “That means that we will perform and we will build on that.”

Kennedy said she is not too worried about Saturday’s race because the team beat the Bulldogs during the fall season, winning five out of six races.

“It’s the first race of the season,” Kennedy said. “We’re just now figuring out boat lineups and trying to find the right boats to go fast.”

Kennedy said the races leading up to the Pac-12 Championship and NCAA Championship will be learning experiences.

“We figure out what went wrong and what we do well,” Kennedy said. “It’s the Pac-12 and NCAA that we’re trying to be in our most fit form for.”