PSU women's basketball excited about 2009-2010 season

The PSU Women's Basketball team begins its 2009-2010 season on Sunday, November 15 on the road against Johnson & Wales at 3:00 pm. PSU's first home game is Tuesday, November 24 against Castleton at 5:30 pm.

PSU will look to capture its second straight winning season as they look to become a major force in the Little East Conference, which figures to be as tough as ever.

PSU will have four returning seniors: Guard Gretchen Fritch, Guard Katie Sunderland, Guard Kalie Judd, and Forward Laura Kent. Judd will be running the PSU offense at the point and will look to lead her team to the postseason. Kent was the team's second leading scorer last season averaging nearly 12 points per game while bringing in an average of six rebounds per game. When asked about her team's returning players, PSU head coach Lauren Lavigne stated that she is excited about the balance of her team, "Our team is balanced top to bottom. If we are to look at scorers it will have to be the continued presence of Alicia Doucet, Amanda Kania and Laura Kent," said Lavigne, "Kalie Judd is our floor general and one of our top defensive players is key. She took huge strides last year."

Last year, PSU gave up only 60 points or fewer in twelve different games. Coach Lavigne believes her team's defense will be one of the major keys to success this year "Some keys for us will be our defense. Last season we took some huge stride defensively as a team and I hope we continue to show that same growth; and more importantly same pride in our team defense," said Lavigne, "Also - stabling out post presence consistently throughout the season is another key."

As the start of the season is less than a month away, coach Lavigne is excited and can't wait to get it started "I think it is safe to safe we are all very excited about the coming season. Like every year, we have to take it one day at a time and keep things in perspective," said Lavigne, "Practices have been great and we have really worked on some fundamentals and it has been exciting and motivating."

PSU has not finished with a winning record in the LEC since the 2002-2003 season. Last season, PSU finished 6-8 in the LEC despite having a winning overall record of 16-11. PSU finished in the middle of the pack in the LEC last season, finishing in fifth place behind Keene State, Southern Maine, Western Connecticut and Eastern Connecticut. Although they finished with a conference record just below the .500 mark, PSU fought through their conference woes last season and made an appearance in the LEC Tournament. In the quarterfinals, they were upended by Keene State College by a score of 66-50. PSU would move on to play their final game of the season when they lost to Nichols College 66-54 in the ECAC New England Tournament 1st round.