Coaches,
media pick The Beach to finish third
By Alexis Kindig
On-line Forty-Niner
In
Big West Conference play, the UC Santa Barbara
women’s basketball squad is the team most
likely to take the title — again.
At
the Big West’s basketball media day, coaches
and members of the media recently voted
UCSB most likely to win their eighth straight
regular season championship and seventh
straight Big West tournament championship.
The
Gauchos are currently ranked 25th in the
nation, and have been the highest scoring
team six of the last seven years. They have
also been the top defensive team the last
two years.
UCSB
has two people on the preseason all-conference
team — junior center Lindsay Taylor and
sophomore forward Kristen Mann.
Taylor
made the all-conference second team last
season, and Mann was the Big West’s Freshman
of the Year award recipient. Taylor has
also been named the current Big West Player
of the Week after scoring 20 points in her
team’s victory against North Carolina State.
Also
chosen for the preseason all-conference
team were Crystal Harris and Casandra Reeves
of UC Riverside, Kari Duperron of Cal Poly
San Luis Obispo, and University of the Pacific’s
Gillian d’Hondt.
Pacific
was ranked second in the coaches’ and media
polls, and Long Beach State was ranked third.
One
of these two teams has come in second to
UCSB in the regular season every year since
the 1998-99 season.
LBSU
has not come in first since 1989, and the
49ers were ranked fourth in the Big West
last season.
This
season, The Beach will rely largely on its
outside shooting abilities, according to
head coach Dallas Bolla.
Jinga
Gosschalk and Lauren Bull are three-point
shooters to be reckoned with, Bolla said.
Gosschalk had 38 three-pointers last season,
while Bull drained 32.
In
addition, although the team is young, there
is a lot of talent there, Bolla said.
Gosschalk
was on the Dutch national team and junior
center Petra Glaser played for German national
teams. And Glory Johnson, who is the team’s
top returning scorer averaging 9.9 points
per game last season, is also a very good
three-point shooter, according to Bolla.
So
far, UCSB and Cal State Fullerton have won
their first games of the season, against
North Carolina State and Centenary, respectively.
LBSU
lost its first game of the season, against
the University of San Diego, but picked
up a win against New Mexico State Monday
night.
Thanksgiving
week is a busy one for the Big West, with
21 games scheduled, including two holiday
match-ups for The Beach.
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