Pioneers Open Season at Providence - Game Notes
11/17/2005 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Nov. 17, 2005
Complete Sacred Heart vs. Providence Game Notes in PDF Format
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Sacred Heart Pioneers (0-0) vs. Providence Friars (0-0) Game #1 - Friday, Nov. 18, 2005 - 7:00 pm - Providence, RI (Alumni Hall / 2,620) Officials: Margaret Lynch-Gadaleta, Jack Plunkett, John Riordan
The Storyline... The Sacred Heart Pioneers will open the 2005-06 season against the Providence College Friars. The Pioneers are poised for a run at the Northeast Conference title with a wealth of talent and experience returning. The Pioneers have been picked to finish second in the Northeast Conference Coaches Preseason Poll, receiving four first-place votes. Four starters return to the SHU lineup in guards Nicolle Rubino, Kerri Burke and Amanda Pape along with forward Jasmine Walker. The Pioneers will also welcome back the return of junior Mary Rush to the court. Rush missed all of last season with a foot injury but has battled her way back and will see her minutes increase as the season wears on. Eight players in total return to the team with much of the Pioneers offensive muscle still intact. Pape, Burke and Rubino all averaged double figures last year. SHU will face a Providence team looking to rebound from a 1-27 season a year ago. Its been 26 years since the Pioneers and Friars have met on the hardwood but it is the third-straight season that SHU will meet a team from the Big East Conference.
The Coaches... Ed Swanson (SHU '89) enters his 16th season as head coach at his alma mater. Swanson posts a 230-187 record in his career at Sacred Heart. His teams have an 104-68 record since joining the Division I ranks in 1999-00. Swanson is the program's longest tenured coach and is the all-time leader in coaching wins, (230) and winning percentage (.552). He also earned his first ever NEC Brenda Reilly Coach of the Year award after guiding SHU to a school record 21 wins in 2003-04. Phil Seymore (Canisius `89) is in his first season at the helm of the Providence College women's basketball program. This is Seymore's first season as a head coach and becomes the eighth head coach in Providence women's basketball history. For the last five years Seymore has served as an assistant coach for the Friar men's basketball team, helping the squad earn NCAA Tournament berths in 2001 and 2004.
Series... Providence leads the all-time series, 1-0. The only meeting between the two schools took place during the 1979-80 season with the Friars posting a 59-42 win over the Pioneers. The game was part of the Kean College Tournament in Union, N.J.
Pioneers vs. The Big East... Sacred Heart is 1-9 all-time against teams from the Big East Conference. The Pioneer's lone win came against Boston College, 60-48, during the 1979-80 season. SHU is 0-9 since then with a loss to Syracuse at home, 63-59, last season. SHU is 1-1 against BC, 0-3 against Seton Hall, 0-2 against Georgetown and 0-1 against Providence, Pittsburgh and Syracuse.
Scouting the Friars... The Providence College Friars will open their season this evening with the program getting a fresh look under first year head coach Phil Seymore. The Friars were 1-27 in 2004-05 and winless (0-16) in the Big East. Seymore takes over the reigns as the Friars eighth coach all-time after spending the last five seasons as an assistant on the PC men's team. He will have several familiar faces to work with as eight players return including four starters to this year's club. The Friars will look to junior forward Shauna Snyder to provide the offensive spark coming off 13.4 points per game last season. Snyder also led the team with 27 steals and was second on the club averaging 4.8 rebounds per game. Sophomore Kristen Brown returns to the man the middle for the Friars. Brown led the team in rebounding pulling down 6.2 rebounds per game while averaging 5.5 points. She shot 44.4% from the floor (56-126) on the year, also a team-high mark. The Friars were picked to finish 16th in the 16 team Big East Conference. After tonight, Providence will welcome Yale University to campus before hitting the road for a pair of games at Northeastern and Saint Peter's.
Road Warriors... The Pioneers will pack their bags and hit the open road to start the season and close out the 2005 calender year. SHU will play seven of their first nine games away from home. The season starts tonight at Providence and the SHU bus will roll out again next week with pit stops at Hofstra and Syracuse. The Pioneers home opener will take place on Dec. 1st against Yale followed by St. Francis-NY paying a visit on the 7th. From there, it's back on the road again for stops at St. Francis-PA, Iona, Ohio State and Rider closing out the month of December. The new year will be welcomed by four-straight in the friendly confines of the Pitt Center.
Season Openers... For the fifth time in SHU's six years in Division I the Pioneers will start a season on the road. SHU is 1-3 in those contests and 1-5 in their last five road games that started a season. The Pioneers snapped a five-game winless streak on the road when they won at Yale, 66-53 last season. SHU is 8-9 all-time in season openers away from home. Sacred Heart has enjoyed strong starts to their seasons the past three years, jumping out at 4-1 last year, 5-1 in 2003-04 and 4-1 in 2002-03. In their first six years at the Division I level, the Pioneers have a 3-3 record in season opening games. SHU is 16-15 all-time in season openers.
2005-06 Team Captains... This year's team will be led by captains, senior Nicolle Rubino and junior Kerri Burke. Rubino, a three-year starter, is closing in on 1,000 points for her career and was the 2002-03 Northeast Conference Rookie of the Year. Burke is coming off a breakout season where she started every game at the point and averaged 36.6 minutes per game, second on the team. "Nicolle and Kerri epitomize what true leaders posses, tremendous work ethic and excellent communication skills," stated Swanson. "The two of them have shown that they deserved to be chosen by their teammates and the coaching staff not only through how they have played in their careers but also how they have carried themselves in the postseason."
Inching toward 1,000... Senior Nicolle Rubino is just 36 points away from reaching the 1,000-point plateau for her career, a mark that only nine other Pioneers in school history have reached. Rubino currently ranks 10th on the school's all-time scoring list with 964 points, ahead Brooke Rutnik (`03) with 941. Quickly rocketing up the list is junior Amanda Pape, who should also eclipse the mark later this season. Pape has 870 points after her first two season's in a Pioneer uniform, placing her 14th on the all-time list. The last Pioneer to break the 1,000-point barrier was Brooke Kelly (`03) during the 2002-03 season. Kelly finished her career with 1,349 points, third all-time.
Triple Trouble... Sacred Heart returns a wealth of talent and experience to this year's club and it all starts with the return of the team's top-three scorers from last season. The Pioneers averaged 64.2 points last season with the trio of Amanda Pape, Kerri Burke and Nicolle Rubino combining for 35.9 of those points. As a sophomore, Pape led the team in scoring for the second-straight year averaging 14.9 points per game. She also led the team in rebounding, pulling down 7.0 boards and in steals with 79 on the year. Rubino finished off last season averaging 10.2 points per contest while handing out a career-best 102 assists and making 54 steals. She grabbed a career-high 125 rebounds on the season (4.5 rpg). Burke took hold of the point guard position last season and finished second on the team in scoring. She averaged 10.8 points and 4.24 assists per-game last year and became a major-threat from behind the three-point arc, burying 34.6% (52-143) from downtown.
Walker on the Block... Junior Jasmine Walker is the Pioneers top returning post player heading into the season and is coming off a strong 2004-05. Walker finished the year with five double-double games and averaged 7.7 points and 7.0 rebounds on the year. She was seventh in the NEC in rebounding and also blocked 23 shots on the year. The junior forward spent much of the early part of last season battling her way through illness. She returned to the starting lineup in game 12 and led the Pioneers to a 13-3 record the rest of the way.
Long Range Bombers... Sophomore Lisa Moray finished last season ranked 3rd in the NEC in 3-point shooting percentage, hitting 40.0% (30-75) from downtown. Moray came off the bench to average 4.1 points as a freshman. Junior Kerri Burke finished the year ranked 5th in the league in 3-point field goals made, hitting 1.83-per game. Burke hit 53 treys on the year and shot 34.6 % (53-153) from behind the arc. Senior Nicolle Rubino had 31 triples last year and has 118 in her career, seventh all-time.
The Fantastic Frosh... The addition of five talented freshman round out the 2005-06 squad giving the Pioneers a tremendous amount of depth. Guards Liz Gruber, Khalia Cain and Rachel Hudec will all compete for minutes in a deep and talented back court while 6-4 center Kaitlin Sowinski and 6-2 Katie Brown will bring height and a presence in the paint.
No Place Like the Pitt... The Pioneers continue to make the William H. Pitt Center one of the toughest places for opponents to get a win. SHU finished 2004-05 with an 11-5 record at home and at one point early on last season owned a 19-game home winning streak, seventh longest in the nation at the time. A loss to Hofstra ended the run but the Pioneers rebounded and were 8-1 in conference play at home. SHU is 64-17 at home since joining the NEC and 84-19 since the building opened in 1997.
A Winning Tradition... Sacred Heart finished 18-11 last season and posted their fifth-consecutive winning season under head coach Ed Swanson. The Pioneers have posted at least a .500 record in 10-straight seasons and have had just four sub-.500 seasons in his 15 season at the helm. Senior Nicolle Rubino has helped the Pioneers to a three-year total of 57 wins, the best three-year stretch in SHU history.
Two-Time Preseason All-NEC... For the second-straight season, junior Amanda Pape has been named to the All-Northeast Conference Preseason Team. Pape is coming off a first team All-NEC performance as a sophomore, a follow up to her Rookie of the Year season in 2003-04. Pape is just the second Pioneer to earn a spot on the preseason team. Brooke Kelly was tabbed heading into her senior season in 2002-03.
NEC Preseason Rankings... The Sacred Heart women's basketball team was picked to finish second in the Northeast Conference Preseason Coaches Poll for the 2005-06 season, as selected by a vote of the leagues head coaches. The Pioneers received four first place votes and were picked behind Robert Morris who were picked to win their first NEC Championship with six first place votes. NEC Poll: 1. Robert Morris (6) 2. Sacred Heart (4) 3. Monmouth 4. St. Francis -PA (1) 5. Quinnipiac 6. Mount St. Mary's 7. Central Connecticut 8. St. Francis-NY 9. Long Island 10. Fairleigh Dickinson 11. Wagner
SHU in the Northeast Conference... Sacred Heart became a member of the Northeast Conference during the 1999-00 season and since that time has posted an 102-67 overall and 74-33 conference record. SHU is coming off their second-straight 14-4 season in conference play where they matched their best-ever finish of 2003-04. SHU was the second seed in the NEC Tournament for the second consecutive season. The Pioneers have reached the post season tournament in each of their six seasons in the league and have never finished lower than third in the final league standings.
History... This is the 32nd season of Pioneer basketball. Sacred Heart's first year of competition was the 1974-75 season under head coach Mickey Stratton. SHU carries an overall record of 335 wins and 431 losses for a .437 winning percentage. SHU joined the Division I ranks in the 1999-2000 season as a member of the Northeast Conference, making this the sixth season at the Division I level. SHU has not had a losing season in Division I, posting a 104-68 record and six consecutive trips to the NEC Tournament.
