WOMEN'S BASKETBALL TO OPEN SEASON AT MARYMOUNT TOURNY
WILKES-BARRE--- After going 14-12 in 2007-08, the King's College women's basketball team will open their season this weekend against Gettysburg College at the 2008 Marymount Marine Corps Tip-Off Tournament held at the Verizon Sports Arena in Arlington, VA.
A three-day tournament, King's will play in the first game on Friday at 1:30pm. Marymount will be running live stats for all of the games. The feed can be found by clicking here: http://muweb.marymount.edu/%7Ejfinney/basketball/xlive.htm
After losing several key players to graduation, including all-time three-point leader Jenna Palumbo, all-time assist leader Lauren Kendra, and Andrea Hochstuhl who, along with Palumbo was a two-time all-conference selection, the 2008-2009 Lady Monarch basketball team looks to use a young squad to return to the Freedom Conference playoffs.
Even with a young squad, the Lady Monarchs were selected to finish second in the conference, behind ranked DeSales and just ahead of FDU-Florham, who knocked the Monarchs out of the 2008 Freedom Conference Tournament in the semi-finals.
Despite the key losses, the Lady Monarchs still have many returners from last season. First-team All-Conference selection senior guard Kaitlyn Fiorino led King's in both total points last season with 441, averaging 17.0 a game, and in total rebounds, grabbing 38 offensive and 77 defensive for 115. Fiorino was also second on the team with 51 assists. After going 150-339 from the floor, Fiorino looks to improve on a solid 44.2 shooting-percentage, and had 65 three-pointers. Also stepping up into a leadership role will be junior forward Kaitlyn Malshefski, who shot 50.0 from the field, going 67-134 on the year. Malshefski scored 162 points and was third on the team in blocks with 15 and was also third with 27 steals.
Also returning this year are juniors Jessica Paettie and Krystina Durako. Paettie, a guard, played in all 26 games for the Monarchs last season, scoring 167 points and 50 rebounds, including 11 on offense and 39 on defense. Durako played well at the forward position, finishing 39-of-81 in shooting with a 48.1 percent field-goal average. After their rookie seasons, sophomores Sarah O'Doherty and Kristen Baumes will look to help guide the younger players. O'Doherty, a six-foot forward, saw action in 13 games before suffering a season-ending shoulder injury. Baumes will split time this season at both shooting and point guard after playing in all 26 games last season.
After suffering a knee injury over the summer, senior Andrea Carroll will look to return to the squad by the latter stages of the season, but will also help guide the younger players with her three years of college experience. Joining the Monarchs for their first season will be guards Kayla Dick, Brittany Muscatel, Paige Carlin, Nina Magan and Abby Malloy. At the forward position, Katie Miller, Julianna Lynott and Jessica Savino will add depth to the roster.
As a team, the Lady Monarchs out scored their opponents 1,711-to-1,609 and shot 39.6 on the floor on 1,471 shots, scoring 583 of those attempts. King's out-rebounded their opponents on the defensive side of the ball 703-660.
“Coming into this season, we have a lot of big, athletic freshmen who will see significant time,” states fourth-year head coach Brian Donoghue. “All of the positions have solid, athletic kids. We have a few returning players who will have to step into larger roles. While we lost some talented players to graduation, I feel like this team has a lot more depth that we did last year. Progress may be slow initially with so many players new to the collegiate game but we feel like we can be a very competitive team as the season progresses and our younger players adjust to playing at a higher level. ”
Assisting Donoghue on the bench will be third-year assistant Bill Barrett and joining the coaching staff for her first season will be student-coach Julie Bidwell.
