Women's Basketball Season

As the 2003 Wilmington College Lady Quaker basketball team looks to defend their back-to-back OAC Regular Season and Tournament titles, the team will look to new leadership, after losing point guard and Kodak All-American Megan Woodruff and three-year starter Shari Stauffer to graduation.

The cupboard is hardly bare for 14th year head coach Jerry Scheve, as the OAC Player of the Year Tara Rausch, along with two more starters, senior guard Amy Kincer and junior forward Siobhan Zerilla, return. Also back for the squad are Emily Cummins and Brittney Morris, key players off of the bench of a team that went 26-3 a year ago.

"It will be difficult to replace our graduated seniors," stated Scheve. "They were an outstanding class. They were everything you want your seniors to be, both on and off the court. Replacing seniors, however, is a part of the process every year, and thankfully we have another great senior class this year."

"The returners are as talented of a group as we have had in the past," commented the head coach. "They are excited about their chance to lead this team. They feel that this team can be the best they have played on, and are determined to make that happen."

The point guard will see a new face for the first time in four years with Woodruff graduating, and Scheve will look to a pair of freshmen to step in and take over that position. Samantha Hood and Flor Chum, both from Teays Valley High School, look to be the front runners at the position while sophomores Tricia Erford and Tiffani Glaser look to make it a tight competition.

The wing position provides quite a bit of depth for the Green and White, as the squad returns three players that averaged over ten minutes a game in 2002-03. Amy Kincer leads the way in that group, as she erupted for 10.3 points per game while dishing out 66 assists and pulling down 3.3 rebounds per game. Sharpshooter Emily Cummins also brings her 6.2 points per game back to the court, while the versatile Brittney Morris averaged four points snd two rebounds a season past.

Looking to add depth on the squad is junior transfer Courtney Balser, sophomore Shawna Thomas and freshmen Chastity Poling, Erika Smith, Amy Eichner and Britni Lakas.

In the post, the team returns OAC Player of the Year Tara Rausch, along with Siobhan Zerilla. A season ago, Rausch averaged 19.5 points and 8.9 rebounds per game en route to earning Player of the Year status. Zerilla set the OAC single season rebounding record, pulling down 381 rebounds in 29 games for an average of 13.1 boards per game. Her scoring average of 10.1 made her the only player in the league last season to average a double-double for the year.

Adding depth to the post is a group of young players that Scheve expects to play important roles on the team. Sophomore Nicole Koenig returns after seeing action in 14 games last season while freshmen Katie Newman, Kara Robinson, Abby Newhouse and Kelly Peters look to fight for playing time inside.

The team expects to have a big bulls-eye on their back for the season, after earning back-to-back league titles, but Scheve is not worried. "I really don't think about those kind of things," said the 14th year coach. "We just worry about ourselves. We have to play hard, play smart and play together to be successful."

The Lady Quakers do not have an easy road to their third consecutive 20-win season, as their non-conference opponents include Methodist, Mt. St. Joseph and Wittenberg, teams that made the NCAA Tournament a year ago, among their non-conference schedule, while facing the always difficult Ohio Athletic Conference season.