Yellow Jackets Get Nine First Place Votes, GC and W&L Receive One Each

 FOREST, Va. --- Fresh off its seventh conference crown, Randolph-Macon College was picked to repeat as ODAC champion in the 2011-12 ODAC Women’s Basketball Preseason Poll.  The Yellow Jackets earned nine first place votes on the way to 99 points in the annual coaches’ survey.  Guilford College sits second with 79 tallies and one top nod, and Bridgewater College and Washington and Lee University tied for third with 72 points.  The Generals received the remaining first place selection.

Randolph-Macon and Roanoke College provided the Salem Civic Center crowd with one of the more dramatic women’s basketball championships at the end of the 2010-11 season.  It was R-MC’s Jennifer O’Briant that hit a 30-footer from the sideline with 0:01 to go to the Maroons and send the game into overtime.  The Yellow Jackets commanded the overtime frame, pulling out the victory and earning the league’s automatic qualifier into the NCAA Division III Basketball Tournament.

The Jackets made it through to the second round before bowing out of the regional pod hosted by Lebanon Valley College (Pa.).  After defeating Bridgewater State, 80-69, R-MC fell to the host Dutchmen, 73-56.

Randolph-Macon (23-7 overall, 17-3 ODAC) welcomes back three starters, a pair of all-conference performers and the ODAC Tournament MOP from a season ago.  Maggie Roy (13.8 ppg) earned a spot on the All-ODAC First Team after leading the ODAC in free throw shooting at 87.0-percent.  Second team choice Taylor Wieczorek (11.8 ppg, 9.0 rpg) finished second in the ODAC in rebounding in her first season as the lead post player.  Molly Brown (8.6 ppg, 4.0 rpg) saved her best performances for the conference tournament, earning MVP honors after scoring 47 points and collecting 18 rebounds over three games.  That included a 22-point 8-rebound effort in the final.

Guilford (15-12, 10-10) was young in 2010-11, but those fresh faces picked up plenty of experience and most are back for another run.  The Quakers will be led by All-ODAC Second Team guard Jazlyn Gibbs (14.8 ppg), who led GC in scoring.  Second year frontcourt players Morgan King (11.3 ppg, 7.9 rpg) and Gabby Oglesby (11.3 ppg, 7.7 rpg), the latter being named honorable mention last year, provide Guilford with a pair of athletic posts.  Oglesby finished second in the league in blocked shots (59).

Bridgewater (22-4, 17-3) must replace the production of 2011 ODAC Player of the Year, Jordan Burkholder, but plenty of talent remains to maybe do just that.  Fellow first team scorer Jessica Mullen (16.1 ppg, 56 steals) finished fourth in the league in scoring and boasted the third-best free throw percentage (85.7 %).  She’ll be joined in the backcourt by Jenny Logan (9.4 ppg, 79 ast), and the frontcourt will be led by Katelynn Hottinger (6.3 ppg, 5.8 rpg), who paced the Eagles in rebounding last season.

Washington and Lee (19-8, 14-6) still features many of the pieces that won the program’s first ODAC crown in 2010, even after losing a pair of starters from last season.  Meg Ingram (15.0 ppg, 138 ast) leads the Generals after earning first team laurels last season.  She led the ODAC in assists and minutes played (34.5 mpg).  Second teamer Becca Bolton (14.6 ppg, 7.4 rpg) is set for a full season in Lexington after missing the first half of the 2010-11 campaign.  W&L also welcomes back Katy Wilson (8.6 ppg, 8.2 rpg), who finished third in rebounding, and Kari Ann Pfannenstein (8.3 ppg).

Plenty of star power returns throughout the conference, with 15-of-18 overall all-conference selections ready to take to the hardwood in 2011-12.  Two posts from the first team are set for their senior seasons in Roanoke’s Nicci Moats (16.1 ppg, 11.6 rpg, 81 blk), who led the ODAC in rebounding and blocked shots, and Virginia Wesleyan College’s Kristen Blalock (16.2 ppg, 7.5 rpg, 35 blk), who was second in scoring.

Back from the second team is Eastern Mennonite University guard Danielle Rittenhouse (13.6 ppg, 4.0 rpg) and Hollins University playmaker Jasmine Greene (14.7 ppg, 7.1 rpg, 95 ast, 53 stl).  EMU also returns ODAC Rookie of the Year and honorable mention choice, Kala Yoders (12.0 ppg, 6.2 rpg), as well as fellow honorable mention performer, Sara Lamneck (10.0 ppg, 8.1 rpg).

Also back from the honorable mention squad is Emory & Henry College guard Jalan McPherson (13.8 ppg, 3.8 rpg) and Randolph College shooter Lauren French (12.1 ppg, 4.4 rpg, 54 3fg).

Listed below is the full 2011-12 ODAC Women’s Basketball Preseason Poll.  For more information on ODAC women’s basketball, visit any of the participating school’s websites, or go to the ODAC’s home on the Internet at www.odaconline.com and view the women’s basketball virtual media guide.

Don’t forget to become a fan of the ODAC on Facebook.  You can also follow the ODAC on Twitter @odacathletics.  Be sure to check out the ODAC's YouTube channel (www.youtube.com/user/ODAC1976) and watch an interview with each of the ODAC’s head women’s basketball coaches as they talk about their programs from media day in Salem (videos not live --- to be added after the event).

2011-12 ODAC WOMEN’S BASKETBALL PREASON POLL
(#) Denotes First Place Votes