These Seahawks sure are flying high.

UNCW women’s basketball team captured its seventh win in eight games, downing George Mason 63-54 Feb. 8 at Trask Coliseum. Earlier in the week, the Seahawks earned a 58-54 victory at James Madison.

The week propelled the Seahawks, who lost their first three CAA games, into sole possession of third place in the league with a 7-4 mark. UNCW holds a 12-8 record overall.

UNCW tackles national power Old Dominion (15-6, 10-1) on Sunday, Feb. 15 at 2 p.m.

Though the Seahawks have never beaten the Monarchs, ODU seems ripe for a defeat. UNCW nearly toppled the Monarchs, who have been a high profile program since the 1970s, earlier in the year as an 11-point second-half lead disappeared.

“I definitely want to beat them before we graduate,” senior guard Jennifer Kapper, who scored 13 points against GMU, said. “I mean, they’ve always been such rivals. We’ve always been the underdog. We had them up at their place. We’re going to be ready for them this time.”

ODU leads the CAA with a 10-1 record after the Feb. 8 games, but throughout the season, teams have played the Monarchs closely. With the Seahawks on a roll, players think it’s their time.

“I think we’re ready,” senior guard Cherie Lea said. “The way we played up there, having such a big lead and losing, and losing the way we did. I think we want to come out and make a statement Sunday.”

Lea, who scored 16 points, nine rebounds and four assists against George Mason, Kapper and coach Ann Hancock pointed to the Feb. 12 game against last-place Towson as the first priority.

“I know it’s a cliché, but you have to take it one game at a time, because if you don’t take care of Towson then Old Dominion almost becomes irrelevant,” Hancock said.

Still, the Seahawks seem smoother now than they did at the start of the season.

UNCW held GMU to 14 first-half points. When the home squad also struggled on offense in the first half, the squad adjusted at halftime, hitting 14 of 26 shots from the floor after intermission.

“When we first started, I think we were trying to figure out what works for our team and now we’re starting to get into a rhythm,” Kapper said. “I mean the whole team’s really hot right now… Whoever’s hot that night, we’re going to try to get them ball.”