Buena Vista 2011-12 women's basketball preview
Now in her 20th season as head coach of the Buena Vista women's basketball team, Janet Berry will guide a team this season which returns two starters and eight letterwinners from a team that finished 12-14 overall (8-8 IIAC) a year ago, while advancing into its 12th straight league tournament.
"We have made two commitments this season, to get stronger and to improve our defense," Berry points out. "We are definitely getting stronger thanks to our new strength and conditioning coach Ron Thomson, and defensively, we feel we have made some good adjustments. We are very determined to improve our rebounding."
Among those returning to help lead the charge is senior captain Jessica Christensen (Turin, Iowa/West Monona), who was a Second Team All-Conference selection a year ago after leading the team and ranking fifth in the Iowa Conference (IIAC) in scoring, while also finishing the year tied for the team lead and sitting third in the IIAC in rebounding (7.3rpg). She averaged right at 13.0ppg for a team that was second in the league in points per game (68.0ppg) overall. For the year, she shot 45 percent from the field, while making a team-high 40 three-point buckets. Aside from her rebounding, she also led the team with 50 steals and was second in blocked shots (29).
Fellow senior Laura Hilby (Johnston, Iowa/Johnston), who also started all 26 games as a junior last season, is back following a junior campaign in which she set a career-high by averaging 7.2 points in nearly 23 minutes per game.
Sophomore Susan Kies (Fonda, Iowa/Newell-Fonda) looks to take over the starting point guard spot which was held by All-Conference and All-Region selection Jahde Hammer, who was one of two players lost to graduation after last season. Kies, who played in all 26 games off the bench, averaged right at 7.0 points per outing and totaled 55 assists. She also shot nearly 80 percent from the foul line.
Juniors Tara Lehner (Le Mars, Iowa/Le Mars) and Brooke Wehle (Denison, Iowa/Denison-Schleswig), who also played in all 26 games a year ago, are each back and will add even more veteran leadership to the line-up.
Wehle turned in 6.3 points in nearly 24 minutes per outing, was one of the team's most accurate shooters, connecting on 47.5 percent of her attempts from the field, including a team-leading 50 percent (24-of-48) from downtown. In addition, she sank 31 of her 39 attempts from the charity stripe. Her 41 assists ranked third, and she also grabbed nearly two rebounds per game, defensively.
Lehner gave the team 17 hard minutes per game for the season, averaging 3.5 points and 3.1 rebounds. She was a 46 percent shooter from the field and was aggressive on the boards, ranking fourth on the team with 26 offensive rebounds.
Senior Amanda Roder (Remsen, Iowa/Remsen St. Mary's) looks to add depth in the post for BVU this season following a junior campaign in which she averaged 3.0 points and 2.8 rebounds in 26 games off the bench. She'll be one of the players called on to fill the spot left behind by Jocelyn Kock, who also graduated after last year.
"We have great leadership with our seniors, and we also are very athletic," Berry adds. "I feel one of biggest strengths is our competitive spirit - there is a lot of fight in this team. I can guarantee you they will never give up and will compete for 40 minutes every game. I also feel we have several offensive weapons and have a lot of good shooters on our team."
BVU ranked fourth in the league a season ago, shooting just less than 41 percent per game from the field and 34 percent from the arc. Defensively however, the Beavers will look to buckle down even more this season after opponents averaged nearly 71 points per game and made 42 percent of their shots attempts from the floor.
Seniors Kiara Bogan (Chicago, Ill./Hillcrest) and Crystal Davis (Hamilton, Iowa/Twin Cedars), along with juniors Heather Hansman (Westside, Iowa/Ar-We-Va) and Nikki Hanish (South Sioux City, Neb./South Sioux City), and sophomores Alex Lynott (Hawarden, Iowa/West Sioux), Malarie Gilley (Grand Junction, Iowa/East Greene) and Tiffany Evans (Des Moines, Iowa/Roosevelt) also return this season and will all compete for playing time and give Berry a great deal of depth off the bench.
"Our biggest challenge will be our size," she notes. "We are not very big, but we make up for this with quickness. We will also continue to try and improve our defensive average, and this is an area we will track very closely."
Aside from those veterans who return for Coach Berry in 2011-12, a solid group of six newcomers have also been added to the roster.
"Our freshmen class is small but mighty. We have some highly acclaimed athletes in Jordan Henningsen (Alta, Iowa/Alta), Rebecca Pennington (Mount Ayr, Iowa/Mount Ayr), Erica Ollendieck (Tripoli, Iowa/Tripoli) and Breyonna White (Omaha, Neb./Burke). They are all working hard and contributing in practice every day."
Prior to the start of its official schedule, BVU will play an exhibition game at William Jewell College on Saturday, November 12 at 1:15pm. The Beavers will then begin their 2011-12 schedule on November 15 with a non-conference road contest at Nebraska Wesleyan (7:00pm). The team's first home game of the year takes place on Monday, November 21 against Martin Luther (7:00pm) with the Iowa Conference schedule tipping-off Wednesday, December 7 in Pella, Iowa against Central College (6:00pm).
