If they can remain healthy, the Waves, deep with skilled players, should have little trouble repeating as WCC champions. By Hailey Amato
Staff Writer
The season is young, the team is young, but the dream is big.
Pepperdine women’s basketball team has high hopes for the 2003-2004 season. Coming off an impressive 22-8 year, the Waves return five members from last year’s West Coast Conference championship squad and are not going home this year without a win in the NCAA tournament.
“We’ve been there before,” sophomore forward Kelly Greathouse said. “In the past I think we’ve been content just making it to that level. This year it’s been really stressed that we can’t be satisfied with just making it to the first round. The season shouldn’t stop there.”
Teammates echo Greathouse and said surpassing the first round is their No. 1 goal for the season.
“This is the year to win our first NCAA game,” junior forward Kelli Spencer said. “Our core group has gone twice now and we know what it’s like. We aren’t going to be scared.”
Last season marked the Waves’ third post-season appearance in four years. They were defeated by the No. 5-ranked Louisiana Techsters in the first round of NCAA action.
They had to persevere through great adversity en route to their NCAA showing. Throughout the season they lost numerous members to injury and often times did not have enough healthy players to field a team during scrimmages. In the absence of teammates, all members were vital contributors to the team.
“I’m very proud,” Head Coach Mark Trakh said. “With all the injuries it was remarkable we had so many kids step up. With the same injuries and losing key players, no other program could survive that and be so successful.”
Besides grabbing the title of WCC conference champions, Pepperdine also won the WCC tournament championship with a 69-57 victory over the University of Santa Clara. The Waves won 14 of their last 17 games and reached the 20-win plateau for the sixth consecutive season, becoming the first team in WCC history to accomplish this feat.
Pre-season polls predict that this year’s team will win yet another WCC championship.
It appears that the Waves have all the pieces to the puzzle this year. They return junior point guard Shandrika Lee, who was the team’s leading scorer before a season-ending injury, and junior forward Shannon Mayberry who also sat out last season due to injury. Along with Lee, senior forward Nicole Funn and junior guard Shanell Law should be crucial on the offensive end. Also returning are junior forward Jennifer Lacy, sophomore forward Kelsey Ball and junior forward Spencer all saw significant minutes last season.
“Returning Lee, from what would have been an All-American-type year will be a key to our success,” assistant coach Derek Wynn said. “You’ll also see Funn have a big year. She’s shown she can do a lot of things on the court. We’re excited to see Law back. The list just goes on and on. Our strength is definitely our depth. Anyone can step up to do the job. We might have a new cast, but we have a lot of intangible things that should lead to our success.”
Greathouse starts her first season playing for Pepperdine, after redshirting last year in accordance with NCAA regulations. The team also welcomes five new rookies who bring athleticism and aggressiveness for the Waves.
“Our offense is very versatile,” Derek Wynn said. “We’ll be able to score more from the inside positions as well as on the perimeter. It’s going to be tough for our opponents to choose a poison. We’re a threat from the outside as well as the inside equally. We’re going to be a dangerous team.”
The key will be keeping the team healthy.
“On paper, we should be more talented and a lot deeper than in years past,” assistant coach Jody Wynn said. “But the big question mark is getting these injuries healed.”
Currently Law and Ball are sidelined.
Once again the Waves will face a grueling non-conference line-up, including matches with five teams who advanced to NCAA play last spring.
“We feel that where we want to be is at the top,” Derek Wynn said. “We want to be a top 25 team and in order to prepare for that we have to beat the best and face these challenges.”
The first test will be against No. 8-ranked Stanford Nov. 20. Pepperdine will also host the defending national champions, the University of Connecticut Huskies.
“We want to prove to ourselves that we are one of those teams,” Mayberry said. “We’re just as good. We just don’t have the respect. It’s time to show everyone else.”
The challenging non-conference schedule will help prepare Pepperdine to dominate the WCC again, said Spencer.
“We could easily arrange a schedule where we could go into conference 12-0, but that isn’t reality,” Trakh said. “Our goal is looking beyond conference to the NCAA tournament and Connecticut, Stanford, those teams are reality.”
Conference play begins Jan. 8 against Gonzaga University. Although Pepperdine came out on top of the conference last year, it will have to work hard to defend its title, according to Jody Wynn.
“We have to come to play, whether it is against the 8th place team in conference or the first,” Jody Wynn said. “In our conference anybody can beat anybody on a given night. There are no easy games.”
The Waves debuted Saturday in an exhibition game against Love and Basketball at the Firestone Fieldhouse.
“Anytime we put on our Pepperdine uniforms we’re representing our team,” Derek Wynn said. “This was a chance to take a look at a lot of different players and see what they can bring to the table, but bottom line is we always go out there ready to win, exhibition game or not.”
The Waves took a 93-91 overtime victory. Funn started the year with a double-double, scoring 21 points (8-14) and grabbing 11 rebounds.
Greathouse, in her first Pepperdine game, was 8-for-12 from the field and scored 18 points, seven rebounds and had a game-high four steals. Lacy was a perfect 4-for-4 from the foul line and brought in 12 points. Spencer had nine points and Lee, in her first game since December 2002, scored eight for Pepperdine.
“We did pretty well,” Greathouse said. “We’re learning how to play together and getting used to each other’s styles. We’re playing hard and just beginning to see what it takes to make it at this level.”
The newcomers were also able to step up and play like veterans.
Freshman Kerra Wodarski started at the two-guard position and played 37 minutes and scored seven points. Freshman forward Jasmine Clarendon had eight points and five boards. Rookie guard Lauren Wenski hit two three-point baskets to bring in eight points in her collegiate debut.
“We started out a little slow, just trying to figure things out,” Spencer said. “The new members were seeing the pace we play at here. Even though we won it was more that this game exposed many things we need to work on before our season opener against Stanford.”
All in all, not a bad start to the long road the Waves face.
“Every year has a new and different chemistry and the players have to make a new identity,” Trakh said. “The most important thing is to take care of what’s coming up first.
“The ultimate team goal is to get past round one of the NCAA’s, but for now we have to look at things day by day.”
November 06, 2003