Kent State, Western Michigan Picked To Win Women's Hoops Divisions

Bookmark and Share

Oct. 22, 2003

Complete Release in PDF Format
Download Free Acrobat Reader

CLEVELAND - Defending Mid-American Conference women's basketball champion Western Michigan has been tabbed as the favorite to win the West Division, while Kent State has been picked to claim the East Division crown, it was announced by the league office today. The two schools, meanwhile, both received the same number of votes to win the 2004 Kraft MAC Women's Basketball Tournament. Voting was conducted by members of the MAC News Media Association. The MAC announces only the top three selections in each division.

The Broncos, who won their first MAC tournament title last year since 1985, welcome back first-team all-MAC performer Casey Rost, one of three starters returning for the 2003-04 season. Rost, who was named the Kraft MAC Tournament MVP back in March, returns as the league's leading scorer at 19.4 points per game. Rost also led the conference in free throw percentage (.903) and three-point field goals (79). In addition to Rost, the Broncos also bring back last year's MAC Defensive Player of the Year Maria Jilian, who averaged 3.9 steals per game while dropping in 9.3 ppg.

Kent State was picked to win its sixth East Division crown despite losing four starters from last year's 16-13 squad. Sophomore Lindsay Shearer is the lone returning starter from a year ago and averaged 8.8 points and 5.7 rebounds per contest. The Golden Flashes, however, also have junior Andrea Csaszar back after missing all of last year with an injury. As a sophomore in 2001-02, Csaszar averaged 15.0 points and 6.8 boards per contest en route to garnering second-team all-MAC honors. She also copped MVP honors at the conference tournament after blocking a tournament-record 18 shots. KSU will also have the services of two Division I transfers after Malika Willoughby (Wisconsin-Milwaukee) and Heather Harris (Youngstown State) after sitting out the 2002-03 campaign.

Slated to challenge the each of the division favorites are Miami and Marshall in the East Division and Toledo and Ball State in the West.

Though Miami lost three starters to graduation, the RedHawks have one of the top returning rebounders in the conference in Colleen Day (6.4 rpg), who also averaged 11.3 ppg, and Kim Lancaster, who claimed last year's inaugural winner of the Sixth Man award. Lancaster came off the bench to average 9.8 points and 4.8 rebounds per game.

Marshall is coming off a season in which the Thundering Herd won their first MAC tournament game and returns a pair of starters. Catie Knable and Sikeetha Shepard-Hall each were tabbed preseason all-MAC picks after garnering conference honors a year ago. Knable led the MAC in rebounding (9.0) and was named to the honorable mention all-MAC team while Shepard-Hall garnered freshman all-MAC honors after leading Marshall in scoring (15.0).

Toledo returns three starters from last year's 20-10 team, the Rockets' sixth 20-win season in the last eight years. Back for UT are senior guards Mary Blessing and Kelly Walker. Walker was named a preseason all-MAC choice after averaging 12.8 points per game and ranking second in the conference in three-point field goals per game (2.6). Blessing, meanwhile, led the MAC in assist-to-turnover ratio (2.6) and was sixth in assists per game (4.8).

Ball State will look for its third straight 20-win season after tying Toledo for the MAC regular season crown. The Cardinals return four starters from a team that went 21-10 but lost Tamara Bowie, a two-time MAC Player of the Year, to graduation. Johna Goff earned second-team all-MAC accolades after topping the conference charts in three-pointers per game (2.6) while averaging 15.0 points per game. In addition, Kate Endress also averaged 15.0 ppg, while Jessica Reiter was second in the league in rebounding (8.5) while dropping in 9.7 ppg.

Exhibition play for MAC teams begin on Saturday, Nov. 1. The 2003-04 women's basketball regular season gets underway on Saturday, Nov. 15 as Miami participates in the Preseason WNIT. The RedHawks face Michigan in the first round.