Women's Basketball
 

Experienced Kutztown to face an arduous 2009-10 journey

KUTZTOWN, PA. (September 17, 2009) – Kutztown University women's head basketball coach Janet Malouf has announced the 2009-10 schedule, which features 14 regular-season home games, and contests against four schools that participated in the 2009 NCAA Division II basketball tournament. (2009-10 SCHEDULE)

“It’s a challenging nonleague schedule but one I believe will prepare us for our conference,” Malouf said. “We’re excited about the upcoming season and competing against some of the top teams in our region.”

The Golden Bears, who finished last season with a 20-8 record last season, begin the season on the road against Wilmington University on Nov. 15. Kutztown’s home opener will be against Holy Family on Nov. 24. Holy Family advanced to the second round of the NCAA Division II tournament.

The other NCAA qualifiers on Kutztown’s schedule include California, Pa., Philadelphia University and rival Millersville University. KU will host California on Dec. 2 during the middle of a season-high four-game home stand that also includes Chestnut Hill (Nov. 30), University of the Sciences (Dec. 5) and Columbia Union (Dec. 9).

Kutztown closes the first half of the season with road games at Lemoyne (Dec. 22) and Philadelphia (Dec. 29). The Golden Bears will play four crossover contests against members of the PSAC West on the first two weekends in January. Kutztown will host Gannon and Clarion on the weekend of January 2-3 and visit Edinboro and Lock Haven the following weekend.

Kutztown begins PSAC East play with a home contest against East Stroudsburg on Jan. 13. Late in the season, the Golden Bears will face a season-high three-game road trip to West Chester (Feb. 17), Shippensburg (Feb. 20) and Cheyney (Feb. 24) before playing their regular season finale at home against Bloomsburg on Feb. 27.

The PSAC postseason tournament begins on Tuesday March 2 with the top four finishers from the East playing each other. The two remaining East survivors will travel to the highest remaining seeded school in the West for the PSAC Final Four during the weekend of March 5 & 6. The PSAC tournament winner receives an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.

Kutztown returns all five starters from last season. Junior forward Melissa McQuade (Pittsburgh/Shaler) led the team in scoring (15.9 ppg.) and rebounding (10.0). She was named to the all-PSAC East first team last season. Senior guard Rachel Wisemiller (Hazleton/Hazleton) was named to the all-PSAC East second team after averaging 15.8 points per contest. Senior center Chauntell Schroeder (Toronto, Ontario, Canada/Mother Teresa) averaged 10.0 points per contest. Junior guard Meredith Starr (Richmond, VA/Monacan) led the Golden Bears with 133 assists. Senior guard Katie Dovey is the other returning starter for KU.

 --KU--