Women's Basketball Season Outlook - Geneva College
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Women's Basketball Season Outlook

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The Geneva women’s basketball team enters the 2015-16 season with more experience than any team in recent memory. Nine of the 11 women who played last season return, including the top four scorers.

“This is the most experience I’ve ever had coming back,” said Geneva Head Coach Lori Wynn, entering her 5th season. “It helps that they know what I want to do and can pick it up quickly. We can do more with more experience but we’ll basically still use the same system we have used.”

That system, though, has never been used by such an experienced group. The most experienced is senior Heidi Mann, who has already scored 1,000 points in her Geneva career. Last year, Mann averaged 15.1 points per game, seventh in the Presidents’ Athletic Conference, and 9.6 rebounds per game, second in the conference. She was also third in steals and free throw percentage and led the conference in minutes.

Heidi will get a late start on her season because the Geneva women’s soccer team secured a post-season bid to the ECAC tournament. The delay isn’t expected to be a problem for the team.

“Heidi practiced a week with us before soccer resumed,” Wynn said. “She’s played in a scrimmage, she’ll be game-ready the minute soccer season is over.”

Even with Mann, this team is experienced. Fellow senior Nicole Hyland, who averaged 11.6 points and 7.7 rebounds per game, also returns. Junior Miranda Heaney also returns after averaging 9.6 points per game and sophomore Lydia Songer comes back with her 7.2 point scoring average.

“We’re much deeper, too, along with being more experience,” Wynn said. “We’ll go as many as 10 deep but we’ll still be counting on Heidi, Nicole, and Miranda to be our top scorers. We expect our freshmen to step in and help, too.”

The freshman class of Lauren Brewer, Jodie Carlson, Callie Ford, and Noelle Henry will provide both depth and size with Henry, at 5-10, the tallest woman on the squad. The other returners who are expected to contribute are Marissa Heaney (Miranda’s twin sister), who averaged 3.2 points per game, Rachel Moore (1.9), Karly Hipsley (1.2), Amanda Knecht (1.0), and Rachel Larson (1.0).

All the depth and talent on the Golden Tornadoes’ roster, though, may not be enough to compete for the PAC title. After all, Geneva shares the PAC with defending NCAA Division III champion Thomas More, which enters the season as the preseason number one again.

“Thomas More will always be the favorite,” said Wynn. “St. Vincent and Washington & Jefferson are going to be tough, too.”

In the PAC playoffs, four teams earn the right to host a home game so, even with three experienced teams at the top, there’s still room for one more team to host.

“For Geneva to be able to get a home playoff game,” Wynn said. “We will need to stay injury free and have our freshmen step up.

“We’d need to get some breaks and win games with our depth.”

With experience for the first time, though, anything is possible.

Nov 10, 2015