SLIPPERY ROCK - Their injuries vary, as do their abilities on the basketball court.

But the members of the Steel City Starz women's wheelchair basketball team are united by a common goal: to win a game.

The Slippery Rock-based squad came close to doing so Thursday in the first round of the 30th National Women's Wheelchair Basketball Tournament, but it dropped a 33-30 decision to the Atlanta Rolling Glory at Slippery Rock University's Aebersold Recreation Center.

"I could taste it," Norah Schneider of Slippery Rock said. "It was right there. It just didn't happen."

Schneider scored 14 points in the game. Her desperation 3-point shot was well wide of its target as time expired. The Starz are 0-9 this year. They were 0-4 after being formed midway through last season.

Thursday's game marked the first time the Starz played against another women's team.

"As soon as I got hurt, (coach) John (Sikora) and I talked about getting a team together," Leah Gray of Mount Pleasant said. "That was in 1987. It's taken us this long."

Gray had never played organized sports before becoming paralyzed from the waist down in an automobile accident.

She attended Edinboro University, met the coach of the wheelchair basketball team there and was invited to play.

"I was the only woman on the team," Gray said. "I've been playing ever since."

The Starz are among the more inexperienced teams in this weekend's 11-team tournament. Atlanta has had a team for four years and is 3-2 this season - 3-0 in women's competition.

Teresa Lannon and Laurel Lawson scored 12 and 11 points, respectively, in their win over the Starz. Lannon has played for the U.S. women's wheelchair team in the Paralympics the past two years.

She is a graduate of the University of Illinois, which has had a wheelchair basketball team since 1946. Lawson graduated from Georgia Tech last year.

"We have players ranging in age from 21 to 56," Atlanta coach Ed Owen said. "Most wheelchair teams are like that.

"It's a unique sport in that a lot of the players don't begin playing until they're 25 or 30. Most have had some type of serious injury and need five years or so to adjust their lives physically or mentally. Then they get into something like this and it takes another few years to become an accomplished player."

Sikora, a Freeport resident, knows his team is still learning.

"It takes a while," he said. "We scored 30 points today and that's about where we're at. A team as accomplished as Illinois, if they pressed us the whole game, we'd be lucky to score 10 and they'd probably score 70."

Theresa Crytzer of Natrona Heights played high school basketball at Highlands and played at Carlow College before graduating in 1985.

She has since played pick-up and intramural basketball before suffering a knee injury in a game last October. That's when she joined the Starz.

Maneuvering the chair on the court, setting picks and shooting while sitting have been among necessary adjustments for Crytzer.

"Not having the momentum of a jump while shooting is hard to get used to," Crytzer said.

Once her knee heals - in nine months to a year - Crytzer will no longer be eligible to play. She said she will stay with the team as a volunteer assistant.

Like Gray, Mary Fletcher of Pittsburgh played wheelchair basketball at Edinboro in 1987. Unlike Gray, she hadn't played since - until the Starz were formed.

"I've always been around sports," Fletcher said. "I've know John for years. Leah, Norah and I played 3-on-3 tournaments for a while before the Starz were formed.

"Wheelchair basketball is always evolving. Our team has only been together for a few months. We're still learning, still striving."

Fletcher has been wheelchair bound her entire life. Her father is a former football and basketball coach at Deer Lakes High School.

Diana Helt, 19, of Pittsburgh has cerebral palsy and can walk for only short distances at a time. She has been involved in water skiing, snow skiing and sled hockey.

She has been with the Starz since their inception.

"We're coming together as a team," Helt said. "It takes time."

Sikora has had his players on a three-day per week weight lifting program to build upper body and arm strength over the past few months.

A customized wheelchair for basketball costs about $3,000, but Sikora applied for and received a state grant when he formed the team.

"This chair didn't cost me a dime and it's mine as long as I'm with the team," Helt said.

"We started this program with a handful of girls and hope to keep building it," Sikora said. "Skilled or unskilled, before or after an injury, with basketball experience or none whatsoever, anyone interested in playing can be part of the team.

"This is a sport for women with physical disability. It proves anyone can enjoy the benefits of athletic competition."