Women's Basketball 2007-08 Season Preview

SOUTH EUCLID, Ohio – When NDC Women’s hoops hits the hardwood this fall, they’ll be shooting for a fourth consecutive 20-win season.  Their three previous 20-win campaigns have come under the direction of Head Coach Dick Deasy, who is no stranger to piling up a pair of tens in a basketball season.  Deasy earned the 500th win of his combined collegiate and high school career last season and heads into NDC’s 2007-08 season with six years on College Road under his belt.

The Falcons won 21 games a year ago in compiling a 21-10 overall record.  The Falcons were 9-5 in American Mideast Conference (AMC) North Division play, good for third place in the circuit.  To hit those lofty win totals this season, the Women in Blue & Gold have their work cut out for them.

This year, NDC will have to replace three starters and their sixth man from last year’s squad.  Just five letter winners return, so Deasy will count on an influx of newcomers to mesh with the returning veterans with game experience.

Deasy and the Falcons also have a difficult slate of conference and non-conference foes alike on the 2007-08 schedule.  “This is probably the toughest schedule we’ve had in my seven years here,” said Deasy, who is the program’s winningest coach, with a 105-78 record on College Road. “We have a couple quality programs to contend with in our division, in Daemen (NY) and Malone, and we have several non-conference games that will be a real test for a young team early on.”

No. 1 in the North
Daemen won the AMC-North a year ago with a 13-1 conference mark and a 25-7 record overall.  Malone moves to the North this season after finishing fourth in the South last season (18-12 overall).  Both teams were ranked No. 2-3 behind Notre Dame in the conference’s pre-season coaches’ poll, released in mid-Oct.  The Falcons also received 11 votes in the pre-season National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) coaches’ poll, which places them 36th among 155 NAIA Division II schools.

The backcourt is back
The top returnees for Notre Dame are the veteran guard tandem of Sarah Dia (Sr/Parma, Ohio) and Ashley Carney (Jr/Solon, OH).  Dia was a First-Team All-AMC North performer last season, scoring 13.8 points per game while averaging 3.8 assists per game.  Dia was the Falcons’ top outside threat in 2006-07, posting a 35.4 percent (58-for-164) mark of 3-point attempts.  She also led NDC from the foul line, shooting 79.2 percent.

Carney averaged 12.2 points and 3.0 assists per game last year as a sophomore.  She was named Third Team All-AMC North.  Also returning from last year’s rotation are junior forward Jamie Henry (Garfield Heights, OH) and sophomore guard Amanda Brown (Vienna, VA).  Brown was the Falcons’ top freshman performer a year ago, averaging 5.5 points and 3.6 rebounds in her 17 minutes per game.

Fledgling Falcons
That group of returnees will be joined by a large recruiting class.  The 2007-08 Falcons’ may roster up to ten freshmen during the season.  Leading that incoming group are Yvette Hunter (Fr/Jamestown, NY) and Ashanti McLeod (Fr/Canton, OH).  Hunter comes to College Road from Jamestown High School, where she averaged 14.5 points and 10.5 rebounds per game as a senior.  McLeod comes from GlenOak High School, where the 5-foot-3 playmaker averaged 11.5 points, 3.0 rebounds, and 2.3 assists per game. 

NDC will also likely count on an infusion of talent with a pair of transfers – forward Molly Baker (Jr/Avon Lake, OH) comes to NDC from Ohio Wesleyan, guard Erika Falcone (Jr/Rocky River, OH) from Otterbein.

With these newcomers, the Falcons must replace their top three rebounders from a year ago (Christine Hastings, Jamie King, Cierra Malone).  Rebounding was a problem area for the Falcons last season, when they ranked 12th in the 18-team AMC; the senior frontcourt accounted for nearly 21 rebounds per game.

“We’ve brought in some talented players who we think can play our brand of basketball,” said Deasy, whose teams have ranked No.1 or 2 in AMC North each of the last four seasons.  NDC’s 76.1 points per game last year ranked first in the North.

Notre Dame will once again compete in the eight-team North Division of the AMC, where they have won one title (2005-06).

Tip-off
The Falcons open their season at home, Nov. 10, against Marygrove (MI).  That’s good news for Deasy and the Falcon players; the NDC Women have thrived on their home hardwood lately. The Blue & Gold are 37-6 (.860) at Murphy Gymnasium since 2004.  The Falcons are slated to play in three quality tournaments in Nov. and Dec. before they get into their conference schedule.  Their AMC North opener is scheduled for Jan. 10, a road game at Carlow (PA).

Notre Dame College is a co-educational liberal arts institution in South Euclid, Ohio. The Notre Dame Athletics Department sponsors the Falcons' participation in 17 men's and women's sports. The College is affiliated with the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) and the American Mideast Conference (AMC), which is the largest NAIA conference in the country.

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