2008 Woodie Awards
Jennies look to improve on last season
Nick Schimmer
Issue date: 11/10/05 Section: Sports
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The Jennies are coming off a season in which they posted a mark of 23-8, including a 17-2 start, good enough for a third-place finish in the MIAA.
This year, the Jennies will feature a squad laden with upper-classmen with four seniors and five juniors leading the club.
Head coach Dave Slifer said with so much experience on the team, he expects the leadership to come from everywhere.
"We have four seniors on the team, and it's inherent that seniors should be able to lead," Slifer said. "We expect everyone to be in a leadership role."
The Jennies return four of their top-five scorers from a season ago, including senior Tiffany Vincent (13.2 ppg), senior Anna Rorvig (9.4 ppg), sophomore Lindsey Maple (9.0 ppg) and junior Ashley Millham (7.9 ppg).
Even with the departure of Bethany Orendorff, the Jennies will be able to rotate in a lot of experience to fill the hole.
While the Jennies were able to avoid the graduation bug, some schools, including last year's national champion, Washburn, were not. The Lady Blues lost three of their top-five scorers from a year ago, which could leave the conference wide open.
Slifer said in his second season at the helm, the team's primary goal is to win the MIAA, something that hasn't been done since the 1989-90 season.
"We have narrowed it down to where the MIAA conference is the most important thing for us," Slifer said. "After that, everything else will just fall into place. This is a veteran team that wants a chance to win an MIAA championship."
The preseason poll has the Jennies finishing third in the conference behind Washburn and Emporia State.
While preseason polls have no bearing on the season itself, they serve merely as a prediction. But Slifer said that there is value in the poll because it is decided by the coaches.
"I think it has always been a fairly good gauge," Slifer said. "The coaches saw that we had a lot of players back but we weren't overly successful against the top two teams last season, so it's only right that they were voted ahead of us."
The Jennies record against Washburn and Emporia State was a combined 1-5 last season with their only win coming in a Jan. 15 road victory over the Hornets.
The Jennies played an exhibition match on Sunday, an 82-74 loss against Creighton University on the road. Slifer said the game gave him a chance to see his team's progression so far this season.
"Our goal is to out rebound people," Slifer said. "We aren't going to be the biggest team ever, but we do have a lot of quickness and a lot of savvy, and we have to make sure we focus on rebounding to be successful."
The game against Lincoln will tip-off at 7:30 p.m. The Jennies were 2-0 against Lincoln last season outscoring them by a combined total of 142-96.