Princeton University Athletics
Tigers Prepare For Season With Basketball Exhibition
November 15, 2002 | Women's Basketball
Nov. 15, 2002
Princeton, N.J. - The Princeton women's basketball team prepares for the 2002-03 season with an exhibition game this Saturday, November 16 at 3 p.m. The Tigers will face the Houston Jaguars at Jadwin Gymnasium in a warm-up session for the season which begins the following Friday, November 22 at Baylor.
After winning 11 games in his first season as Princeton head coach, Richard Barron's expectation level for the women's basketball team this season is sky high. Taking over for a team that finished with only two wins the year before his arrival, Barron's presence was quickly felt as the Tigers equaled the 1999-2000 and 2000-01 win totals combined. With 10 of 11 players back and five incoming freshmen, the Tigers are ready to make some noise in the Ivy race.
"The quantity and quality of work that the players put in this off-season is better," says Barron. "For them there is more to play for. The success that we had as a team last year has motivated the players to work harder and to accomplish more." Princeton ended the year with wins in three of its last four games and the Tiger coaching staff hopes that some of that momentum and confidence spills into this season. The Tigers will be deep and will have experience, two things they did not have coming into last season.
Princeton returns all of its offensive leaders from last season including leading scorer Allison Cahill, who also led the team in assists. Maureen Lane, who led the team in three-point field goals, joins Cahill in their role as team captains. Lauren Goldbeck unites with Cahill and Lane to form a trio of strong senior leaders.
Kelly Schaeffer, who led the team in rebounds and finished second in scoring, leads the junior class. She is joined by the likes of Jessica Aitken, Maureen McCracken, Mary Cate Opila and Eileen Powers while Karen Bolster and Ashley Rook represent the sophomore contingent.
"There will still be challenges in re-defining the culture of the team," says Barron. "But we've started that process well and hopefully the five players that we have coming in will be able to learn as a unit."
The five newcomers on this year's squad represent Barron's first recruiting class at Princeton. Two players from Montana (Ariel Overstreet and Ali Smith), two players from California (Katy O'Brien and Lauren Nestor) and Rebecca Brown from Tennessee are all expected to contribute in their first season with the program.
"Points scored or minutes played is not the only measure of what kind of impact this class will have," says Barron. "I think the fact that we'll have 15 players this year immediately makes us better. There will be more depth, more people challenging for playing time. Just the ability to practice with a full squad already raises the bar."
A natural by-product of depth is improvement and if history repeats itself once again, the Tigers will be a team to watch by the time conference play rolls around in January. Last season, all but one player on Princeton's team earned a career-high scoring night and the one player who did not register a new career high, Maureen Lane, still scored 30 points in the season finale against Pennsylvania.
Although it's only year two of the rebuilding process, Barron and staff have a lot of thing to look forward to. With 10 players back that will be better than they were a year ago and five freshmen whom any one of which can contribute, the Tigers continue to improve and raise the bar for expectations.
An Ivy League championship may be a lofty goal for 2002-03, but then again, not too many people thought the Tigers would win 11 games or sweep defending Ivy champion Penn in the season series last year. For now, finding team chemistry is the goal, but once that happens, it is sky's the limit for Princeton.