NEWARK, NJ—First up for the NJIT women's basketball team in 2015-16 is a trip to upstate New York for a visit to Binghamton on Monday at 7pm in the Events Center.
Fourth-year head coach
Steve Lanpher and his staff welcome six newcomers to the roster, including seven letter winners and two starters from last year's squad.
Four senior starters graduated from last year's 12-17 team. Among the graduates, Slovakia natives
Martina Matejcikova and
Nicole Maticka, are both playing professionally in Europe. Matejcikova is playing in England and Maticka, NJIT's all-time shot blocker, is playing in Germany. Also graduated, NJIT's assists record-holder
Alyssa Albanese, the point guard and
Kim Tullis, who played in 27 games with 24 starts.
NJIT ReturneesReturning starter, junior center
Leah Horton, led last year's team in scoring (10.1 ppg) and rebounding (6.6 rpg). Horton and sophomore guard
Alana Dudley were picked 2nd team All-Atlantic Sun Conference in preseason by the website
CollegeSportsMadness. Horton was also chosen Preseason Player of the Year by Atlantic Sun fans in a poll conducted on the A-Sun Facebook page.
Alana Dudley, a true point guard with a good vision of the court to go along with her quick speed and ball handling skills, was one of four players to play in every game (29), including 12 starts. She averaged 7.2 ppg and ranked third on the team in three-pointers made (27). She scored in double-figure eight times, with a career-high 16 points vs. North Dakota State last November 29 in the Florida Atlantic Thanksgiving Tournament.
Camerin Spahn, a co-captain and versatile forward who has the ability to score inside as well as outside, played in every game (28) but one in 2014-15, including four starts. She averaged 3.8 ppg and 3.3 rpg while scoring a career-best 14 points vs. St. Joseph's (VT) on February 7.
Ronni Grandison, a co-captain who sat out the 2013-14 season as a transfer from UMass, appeared in 25 games, including three starts in 2014-15. Grandison made her first NJIT start at Fairleigh Dickinson on last November 19 and later scored a season-high 10 points vs. Penn on January 24. Grandison will graduate in May with a science technology & society major.
Junior
Olivia Dudley, a threat from behind the arc, appeared in 18 games, while classmate
Ruta Vetra, a multi-faceted player, can play positions from point guard to power forward. She appeared in 23 games, scoring career-best 11 points vs. St. Joseph's (VT) (2/7/15).
Maria Ruban saw her first college action in 2014-15 after attending NJIT and redshirting the previous season. Ruban, standing at 6-foot-5, adds excellent height to the NJIT roster. She appeared in 20 games and scored a career-high 12 points vs. St. Joseph's (VT) (2/7/15) and career-best 8 rebounds vs. Maryland Eastern Shore (2/24/15).
Sophomore
Bianca Picard will compete for playing time as a guard. She played in 20 games, with two starts including a career-high 7 pts at Brown on 3-of-5 from the field (1/20/15). Picard missed the final seven games due to injury.
Glance at the NewcomersKelly Guarino will see her first college playing action after making the long road back from her third major knee injury since she began high school. One of the best girls players in nearby Rockland County, NY, there was never any doubt about her talent on the court. But three torn anterior cruciate ligaments have interrupted her ability to get on the court.
She is a college basketball equivalent of what professional baseball scouts call a "lottery ticket"--a player who owns intriguing talent but is unable to perform right away. Lanpher and his staff brought Guarino to NJIT knowing she couldn't play in 2014-15, knowing wouldn't be able to play until the following year arrived. She spent untold hours rehabiliting the knee since her latest operation, undergoing physical therapy and treatment from the NJIT sports medicine staff and working with NJIT strength and conditioning coaches
Bobby Fisk and
Drew Culp.
Now Guarino is ready to play and she is likely to be a key member of the playing rotation from the start of the 2015-16 season.
Dynamic point guard
Kayla Diaz attended Garrett Morgan Academy in Paterson, NJ, a public school that does not have athletics, making her eligible to play basketball for Paterson Eastside HS. Diaz gided Eastside to a No.11 ranking in the final Star Ledger Top 20 for 2014-15. In the NJSIAA Group 4 state semifinals, she shot 7-for-7 from 3-point range.
Ciani Carter, played for two high schools, Sacred Heart in Williamstown, NJ through her sophomore season and capped off her HS career at Williamstown HS. Honorable mention all-South Jersey as a senior and second-team all-South Jersey as a junior
Jordan Ireland, a combo guard from suburban Pennsylvania about halfway between Philadelphia and Wilmington, DE, will provide the Highlander offense with another perimeter scorer. She led the 2013-14 Garnet Valley HS Jaguars to a 17-0 title in the Central League and into Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association Class AAAA tournament. The 2013-14 Jaguars finished 26-3, the best record in program history.
Tatianna Torres, enrolled at NJIT for the Spring 2015 semester. She practiced with the Highlanders, but did not compete, thus retaining four full seasons of competition beginning with 2015-16. She attended Washington-Lee HS in Arlington, VA through her junior season and capped off her career at Thomas A. Edison HS in Alexandria, VA. At Thomas A. Edison in her senior season, she helped the team to the Virginia state tournament and a final 25-4 mark. Torres was selected to Virginia HS Coaches Association 5A All-State girls' first-team, Class 5A All-State and North Region teams.
Jillian Libby, from Maine, has the ability to score from both inside and outside. Her Cheverus High School team made the 2013-14 Western Maine A Finals when she was a sophomore.
New Faces on the BenchDeAnn Craft, who has over 20 years of success coaching women's basketball at various levels of the college game as well as in the professional ranks, has joined NJIT as assistant women's basketball coach in July 2015. Craft, a 1987 graduate of the University of Central Florida, comes to NJIT having compiled 153 wins with 14 seasons as a head coach at four-year colleges. Her 70 wins at Texas-Pan American (now University of Texas Rio Grande Valley) are the most in that program's history.
Liz Flooks joined the NJIT women's basketball staff as Director of Basketball Operations after working as an assistant coach at University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown from 2013-2015. A native of White Plains, NY, Flooks represented Niagara University on the basketball court, where she was a four-year starter and three-year captain.
Atlantic Sun ConferenceThe Highlanders, who became the eighth full member of the A-Sun effective July 1, 2015, will get 14 games, home-and-away, against the other seven conference teams. They are: Florida Gulf Coast (Fort Myers); Jacksonville (FL); Kennesaw (GA) State; Lipscomb (Nashville TN); North Florida (Jacksonville); USC Upstate (Spartanburg, SC); and, Stetson (DeLand, FL).
Having played the last two seasons as the nation's only NCAA Division I Independent, NJIT will welcome the benefits that come with being a member of an established Division I conference. At the same time, the A-Sun represents a daunting challenge in women's basketball.
Fans can get ready for over 100 broadcasts involving league teams during the 2015-16 season. A total of 110 A-Sun Women's Basketball games will be broadcasted live on ESPN3, including every conference regular season and A-Sun Championship game. It marks the second consecutive season that all league games will be produced on-campus live on ESPN3.
Binghamton NotesBinghamton, 4-26 a year ago under second-year head coach Linda Cimini, returns three startersto the roster – senior guard Kim Albrecht and sophomore guards Jasmine Sina and Imani Watkins.
However, Sina, the 2014-15 America East Rookie of the Year, will not play this season after suffering an ACL tear in preseason conditioning. Sina ranked fourth in the AE with 14.8 ppg (eighth-best average by a freshman in the nation), ranked first in the AE and seventh in the nation with 3.0 three-point field goals per game and reached double-figure scoring 25 times, including five games with a least 20 points.
Watkins returns after a stellar freshman campaign when she averaged13.5 points ppg, while Albrecht is back after a breakout junior season, where she averaged 10.0 ppg and led the AE in free throw percentage.
Sophomore Alyssa James, a transfer from Caldwell in 2014-15, where Cimini coached previously for eight seasons before accepting the coaching job at Binghamton, holds the program's all-time leader in wins (128), sat out due to NCAA transfer rules.
America East PollThe Bearcats were selected ninth out of 11 teams in the preseason women's basketball poll. Last season, the Bearcats dropped a close decision in the America East quarterfinals, 78-71, against top-seeded Maine.
Bearcats Visit Michigan in Season OpenerThe Binghamton women's basketball team opened the 2015-16 season on a historic note, with a trip to the Crisler Center for its first-ever game against Michigan. Michigan, which advanced to the WNIT semifinals in 2014-15, defeated the Bearcats, 90-62. A pair of Binghamton players made the most of their first game in a Bearcat uniform. Freshman guard Rebecca Carmondy finished with 17 points, seven rebounds, five assists, two blocks and a pair of steals. James recorded a double-double with 17 points, 10 rebounds and turned in a game-high four blocks and five steals.
The NJIT men's basketball team stunned No. 17 Michigan, 72-70, in Ann Arbor on Dec. 6, 2014.
Sister Sister NJIT's
Jillian Libby will face older sister, Kylie Libby, who is a junior guard on the Binghamton women's basketball squad. Kylie appeared in 27 games, including six start in the front court for the Bearcats. NJIT's
Alana Dudley plays alongside older sister (Olivia).
Last MeetingThe Highlanders edged the Bearcats last season in Newark, 52-48.
Next ActionThe home opener is scheduled for November 19 at 5 pm vs. Lehigh, which won 19 games and reached the championship game of the Patriot League postseason tournament.
