Women's Basketball Names Captains; Ranked 25th in USA Today Preseason Poll

COMPLETE USA TODAY PRESEASON POLL

PRINCETON, N.J. – Fresh off a historic 31-1 season, the Princeton University women's basketball team has earned a No. 25 ranking in the USA Today Preseason Coaches Poll.

"A preseason ranking speaks to the strength of the previous year's team and the trust in the program as a whole," said ninth-year head coach Courtney Banghart. "We are honored to be recognized as one of the nation's great programs. This year's Princeton team is different, as it is every year. We're building on a foundation of toughness and cohesion with a strong and experienced group of returners.

Our schedule will challenge us early and often, which is just the way we like it."

The first-ever Ivy League program to earn a preseason national ranking, the Tigers are coming off of one of the most historic campaigns in Ivy basketball history. Closing out the regular season with an unblemished 30-0 record, Princeton earned the highest-ever national rankings for an Ivy team, climbing as high as No. 13 in the Associated Press Top-25 and USA Today Coaches polls. The Tigers' 30-0 campaign was also the best in league history, surpassing the 1970-71 Penn men's team's mark of 28-0.

Capturing its fifth Ivy title in six years, Princeton earned the highest-ever NCAA seeding in the conference's history (No. 8) and became just the second Ivy team to record a tournament win with an 80-70 first round victory over ninth-seeded Green Bay. Seeded 16th, Harvard's 1998 squad is the only other Ivy program to win an NCAA Tournament game, upsetting top-seeded Stanford.

Hoping to build on last year's momentum are the team's recently named tri-captains, Annie Tarakchian, Alex Wheatley, and Taylor Williams. Enjoying a breakout season, Tarakchian picked up four Ivy League Player of the Week honors a year ago en route to first-team all-conference honors.

Posting a team-high 11 double-doubles, Tarakchian averaged 10.3 points and 9.3 rebounds per game. Starting 31 of the team's 32 contests, Tarakchian connected on 198 of her 410 field goal attempts (0.483) while knocking down 46.9 (56-74) of her three-pointers. Tarakchian closed out the season ranked first in the Ivy in three-point percentage, second in rebounding, and fourth in field-goal percentage.

Putting together another stellar season, Wheatley earned first-team All-Ivy honors in 2014-15. Averaging 10.9 points per game, Wheatley pulled down 5.1 rebounds per outing. Scoring in double digits on 15 occasions, Wheatly knocked down 131 of her 233 shot attempts. Leading the league with a career-high 56.2 shooting percentage (131-233), Wheatley was also third in blocks per game (1.4). Over the course of her first four seasons, Wheatley has amassed 764 points and 383 rebounds while shooting 55.3 (339-613) from the floor.

An important reserve for Princeton last season, Williams appeared in all 32 games for the Tigers, making six starts. Averaging 5.0 points and 2.8 rebounds per game in 15.1 minutes, Williams shot 53.8 percent (64-119) from the field while ranking second on the squad in blocks (30).

The Tigers open their 2015-16 campaign at Jadwin Gymnasium on Friday, Nov. 13 against American. Tip-off is set for 7 p.m.

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Annie Tarakchian

Alex Wheatley

Taylor Williams