UAlbany WBB Opens 2014-15 Season, Hosting St. Francis Brooklyn in Preseason WNIT on Friday
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Preseason WNIT Website
ALBANY, N.Y. – The UAlbany women's basketball team will begin its 2014-15 campaign with one of the most prestigious in-season tournaments in the sport, tipping off against St. Francis Brooklyn to begin the Preseason WNIT on Friday, November 14th at 7 p.m. at the SEFCU Arena.
Tickets for the game at $10 for chairbacks and $3-5 for reserved seats. Students enter free with a university ID, while faculty and staff may get a ticket free with a ticket purchase. Pizza will be given out to the first 500 students, plus t-shirts will be given to 500 students at the start of the second half. Tickets can be purchased online at ualbanysports.com, by calling 442-DANE or visiting the UAlbany ticket office in the SEFCU Arena during normal business hours.
UAlbany will celebrate the dropping of the banner for the home opener to celebrate the team's 2013-14 America East title. It will be the third banner for the team in as many years.
UAlbany, which received a vote in each the AP and USA Today Coaches Preseason Polls, is seeking its fourth consecutive America East title this season, going 28-5 last year with a 15-1 conference record in 2013-14. St. Francis Brooklyn finished fifth in the Northeast Conference last season, tallying a 19-11 overall record and a 10-8 league standing.
This is the eighth meeting all-time between the two schools, with UAlbany leading the all-time series 5-2. The Great Danes have won the last three games, including the last meeting in 2011 with a 50-31 win at the SEFCU Arena.
For the first time, UAlbany will be competing in the Preseason WNIT, a 16-team regular season tournament featuring 14 teams with winning records, nine teams that went to the postseason in the 2013-14 season, including five NCAA and four Postseason WNIT teams, and five conference champions. All teams are guaranteed three games in the tournament. The winner of this contest will play the victor of Penn State-Towson, which is being played on Friday at noon in University Park.
UAlbany opens the year at #6 in the College Insider Women's Mid-Major Top 25, marking its highest mid-major ranking at the start of the season. The team finished #4 in the mid-major poll last season, its highest ranking ever. The Great Danes picked up 549 points in the poll. The team is the only ranked team from the America East, the highest ranked squad in the state of New York and third among mid-majors on the East Coast.
The Great Danes return the reigning America East Player of the Year in Shereesha Richards, who led the league with 20 points and 8.9 rebounds a game last season. She is just 26 points away from joining the 1,000-point club in her career. Sarah Royals led the league in assists last season with 159 with 4.8 per contest, averaging 11.7 points per game to rank 12th in the America East, while Margarita Rosario was second in the conference with 130 total assists for 3.9 assists a contest, earning 6.9 points per game.
St. Francis Brooklyn, led by third-year head coach John Thurston, is coming off its winningest season in program history, going 19-11 last year, and was predicted to finish third in the Northeast Conference. The Terriers had the top ranked scoring defense in the NEC last year, allowing 62.1 points per game. The team's leading scorer last season, 2nd-Team All-NEC senior guard Eilidh Simpson shoots 44% from the field, averaging 14 points a game. Senior forward Jaymee Veney led the Terriers in rebounding, earning 6.9 boards and 10.7 points a contest.
