Marquette University Athletics
Women's Basketball Opens Exhibition Season This Saturday
11/3/1999 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Nov. 3, 1999
MILWAUKEE -
COMING UP Head coach Terri Mitchell's Marquette women's basketball team opens its 1999-2000 season on Sat., Nov. 6, with its exhibition opener against the Soproni Postas Basketball Club of Hungary at 7 p.m. (CT). The game is the first of the Golden Eagles' two preseason exhibition games. Marquette opens the regular season at home in the Milwaukee Arena on Fri., Nov. 19, when the Golden Eagles host Iowa at 7 p.m.
SOPRONI POSTAS AT A GLANCE One of the most storied club teams in Hungary, the Soproni Postas Basketball Club has been competing worldwide for over 50 years and has won several national championships. Head coach Emil Nemeth's club features several members of the Hungarian National Team which played in last year's Ronchetti Cup. Saturday's game against Marquette will be the third in a nine-game schedule against Midwestern colleges. Soproni Postas battles Ball State on Nov. 3 and faces Butler on Nov. 4 before arriving in Milwaukee.
LAST YEAR Marquette returns all five starters from a team that went 21-8 a year ago. The Golden Eagles earned a tie for the Conference USA regular-season championship, won more than 20 games for the third straight season and advanced to the NCAA Tournament for the third consecutive season. At the NCAA Tournament, Marquette was awarded the #8 seed in the Midwest Region, its highest seed ever. However, the Golden Eagles fell to nationally-ranked Kansas 64-58 in the opening round at West Lafayette, La.
Marquette finished the season shooting 43% from the field, 32% from behind the arc and 70% from the free throw line. Marquette?s opponents converted 39% of their field goals, 36% of their attempts from three-point land and 68% of their free throws.
The Golden Eagles held a +8.8 point scoring advantage over their opponents, 71.0-62.2. Marquette outrebounded its opponents by a 41.7-33.7 margin (+8.0 rpg), best in C-USA.
Head coach Terri Mitchell started the same five players in every game last season: G- Kiesha Oliver and Kristi Johnson, F - Lisa Oldenburg and Heidi Bowman, C- Abbie Willenborg. The starters accounted for 85% of the points (60.5 ppg) and 71% of the rebounds (29.5 rpg).
Willenborg paced Marquette with 16.8 points and 9.9 rebounds per game. Joining Willenborg in double digits for points were Oldenburg (13.9 ppg), who led the squad with a 56% field goal percentage, Bowman (11.4), who led the team with a 36% three-point shooting percentage, and Oliver (10.0). Johnson led the team with 3.7 assists per game and an 80% free throw percentage.
IN THE POLLS Marquette was not ranked in any postseason polls following last season, but the Golden Eagles have garnered national attention in several of this year's preseason polls. The Golden Eagles are #10 by the Women's Basketball Journal, #20 by Women's Basketball, #25 by Street & Smith's and #29 by Basketball News. The USA Today/ESPN Coaches' Top 25 and the Associated Press Top 25 have not yet been released.
HEAD COACH TERRI MITCHELL Entering her fourth season as head coach, Terri Mitchell is 64-25 (.719) at the helm of the Golden Eagles. Marquette's 21 wins last season made Mitchell the first head coach in the program's history to earn 10 wins or more in each of her first three seasons. She is also the first coach in the program's history to lead the team to a regular-season title, three-consecutive 20-win seasons and three straight appearances in the NCAA Tournament.
Mitchell was named the Conference USA Coach of the Year following the 1997-98 season after leading the Golden Eagles to a 22-7 mark and a second straight NCAA Tournament appearance.
In her debut season of 1996-97, Mitchell led Marquette to a 21-10 record, an 11.5 game turnaround from the Golden Eagles? 8-20 season the year before. The jump marked the largest improvement by a first-year head coach in NCAA Division I that year.
A 1989 graduate of Duquesne, where she was also a four-year letterwinner for the Duchesses? basketball team, Mitchell started her coaching career as a graduate assistant at Arizona State during the 1989-90 season. After a one-year stint as the Director of Camps and Promotions for Future Stars International, Mitchell came to Marquette as an assistant coach in 1991. She served as an assistant at the university until she was named head coach on June 6, 1996.
Mitchell is assisted by Tracey Tarkington, Jon Cain, Michelle Nason and special assistant Kelly Johnson.
PRESEASON HONORS For the second straight season, Willenborg was named by the league's coaches to the Preseason All-C-USA Team. The center has been honored by the league following each of her first three seasons in a Golden Eagle uniform. Willenborg was an All-C-USA First Team selection at the conclusion of the past two seasons after earning C-USA All-Freshmen Team accolades following the 1996-97 season.
The 12 C-USA coaches picked Marquette to tie for the league championship with Tulane. The Golden Eagles and Green Wave were the top team in the American and National Division, respectively.
EXHIBITIONISTS Marquette won both of its exhibition outings last season, defeating the Siberian Shelen Club 100-59 in the Bradley Center and downing the Estonia Select Basketball Club 84-36 in the Milwaukee Arena. Under Mitchell, the Golden Eagles are 5-1 in preseason action, with the Chicago Challengers handing Marquette its lone loss in a 79-75 decision in 1996.
LEADING THE FLOCK Seniors Oldenburg, Oliver and Willenborg will serve as Marquette's captains this season.
WILLEN' AND ABLE Willenborg (Arlington Heights, Ill. / Hersey) led the league in rebounding and with 15 double-doubles (points-rebounds) last season. She hit double-digits in points in 25 of MU's 29 games and led the team with 16.8 points and 9.9 rebounds per game. Willenborg also averaged 1.4 steals per game while shooting 51% from the field and 71% from the line.
She surpassed 1,000 career points against Illinois on Dec. 13, 1998, and is now in sole possession of fifth place on the all-time Marquette career scoring list with 1,351 points. Willenborg needs six points to move into fourth place. She also is in fifth place on the all-time Marquette career rebounding list with 899 boards.
SOLID GOLDENBURG Oldenburg (West Allis, Wis. / Hale) was named to the All-C-USA Second Team and the C-USA All-Tournament Team for the second straight season last year. The 6-2 Oldenburg averaged 13.9 points, 8.6 rebounds, 1.8 steals and 1.6 blocks per contest while shooting a team-best 56% from the field. She led Marquette with 15 points on 7-13 shooting against Kansas in the NCAA Tournament.
Oldenburg reached the 1,000 career points milestone on Jan. 17, 1999, and needs 19 points to move into the all-time Marquette career scoring Top 10. She currently has 1,184 career points and 626 career boards. Oldenburg also set new career highs in rebounds, assists, blocks, steals and field goal percentage last year.
She was named to the 1999 GTE Academic All-District V University Division Second Team on March 1.
K.O. PUNCH Oliver (Racine, Wis. / Park) opened last season with a career-high 24 points against Loyola Chicago and continued to come up big for the Golden Eagles as they progressed through the schedule. She averaged 10.0 points, 3.9 rebounds and 2.6 assists and shot 70% from the line. Oliver sparked MU in its upset wins of nationally-ranked Florida and Wisconsin with 23 and 15 points, respectively. The starting shooting guard, Oliver will also see minutes at the point again this season.
THROWING BOWS Bowman (Piercy, Calif. / South Fork) finished last season by scoring double-figures in the last seven games, a span in which she averaged 16.4 points and shot 45% from three-point land. The 6-0 junior averaged 11.4 points, 4.8 rebounds and 1.9 assists per game and shot a team-leading 36% from behind the arc during a breakout season last year. She connected on 79% of her shots from the charity stripe. Bowman set new single-game and single-season highs in every statistical category and hit for a career-high 23 points on Feb. 21, 1999, against DePaul.
RUNNING THE SHOW Johnson returns to game action on Saturday for the first time since being knocked out of the NCAA Tournament game with a broken maxilla bone in the 12th minute. Totally healthy, Johnson is out to build on her impressive debut season of a year ago.
She was named to the C-USA All-Freshman Team and averaged 8.4 points, 2.3 rebounds and 3.7 assists per game. Johnson proved herself as one of the league's top clutch shooters, hitting 36% of her three-point tries and a team-high 80% of her free throw attempts. She tallied a career-high 20 points against Louisville on Sun., Jan. 3, 1999.
Johnson was the first freshman to start at the point for Marquette since Shari Smith filled in for the injured Renae Scheibe during the 1995-96 season.
EB' AND FLOW Ebony Williams (Davenport, Iowa / Bettendorf) is expected to see an increased role at a new position this season. After two years of action under the boards, the athletic junior will get extensive minutes on the perimeter this year.
Williams also finished last season strong, posting 1.4 blocks and 1.0 steals per game during Marquette's last five regular season games. She had three points and a rebound against Kansas.
Williams came off the bench for one of the top performances of her career against Southern Miss on Jan. 17, 1999. Filling in for a foul-plagued Willenborg, Williams grabbed a career-high 14 rebounds, blocked two shots and had four steals. She had a career-high nine points against Loyola-Chicago in the 1998-99 season-opener. The 6-0 junior forward averaged 2.2 points and 2.4 rebounds in 11 minutes per game last year.
Z-52 BOMBER Sarah Zawodny (Beavercreek, Ohio / Chaminade-Julienne), a 6-4 sophomore center, finished last season on a high note, averaging 7.0 points, 4.2 rebounds and 1.2 assists per contest over the last five regular-season games. On the season Zawodny averaged 2.4 points and 2.2 rebounds per game while shooting 61% from the field.
She had a big game against Wisconsin on Dec. 3, 1998, tallying a career-high eight points and six rebounds in a career-high 24 minutes. She also turned in a good performance against Saint Louis on Feb. 12, 1999, matching her career-highs with eight points, two steals and a block and establishing new career-highs of eight boards and three assists.
NEW TO THE NEST After sitting out the mandatory season last year, Dayton transfer Jenelle Ristau (Kimberly, Wis. / Kimberly) is eligible for action starting Saturday. The 6-1 sharpshooter came off the bench for two seasons for the Flyers and averaged 9.9 points, 5.0 rebounds and 1.4 assists per game.
Four freshman dot the Marquette roster this season. Redshirt Kristin Seffern (Van Dyne, Wis. / North Fond du Lac) is healthy this year after missing all but 11 minutes last season with a stress fracture in her left foot. A 6-2 player who is comfortable at either forward slot, Seffern holds the North Fond du Lac career records for points and rebounds.
Also bolstering the frontline are freshmen Rachel Klug (Cedar Grove, Wis. / Cedar Grove) and Kim Nelson (Mosinee, Wis. / Mosinee). The 6-2 Klug was an All-Wisconsin First Team and Milwaukee Journal Sentinel All-Area Team selection as a senior and concluded her career with 1,732 points and 1,212 rebounds. Nelson, a 6-0 walk-on forward, concluded her prep carer as Mosinee's all-time leading scorer and was an All-Wisconsin Fourth Team pick last year.
Adding depth to the Marquette backcourt is 5-8 Rashida Gales (Burnsville, Minn. / Burnsville). The freshman was a finalist for Ms. Basketball Minnesota and was named to the St. Paul Pioneer Press All-State Honorable Mention Team last season. Gales will see action at both point guard and shooting guard.
Rounding out the roster is 6-4 center Kylee Bogott (Sterling, Ill. / Newman Central Catholic), who is sitting this season out after transferring from Ohio State.
ARENA SWEET ARENA Marquette is 163-110 (.597) all-time in home games, including 78-38 (.672) at the Milwaukee Arena and Auditorium and 15-13 (.586) at the Bradley Center.
Marquette is 31-5 (.861) in home games under Mitchell, including 10-2 (.833) this past season.
ON THE ROAD AGAIN Marquette is 110-174 (.387), all-time, in road games. Under Mitchell, Marquette is 25-14 (.641) in true road contests, including 9-4 (.692) this season.
The Golden Eagles are 2-2 in neutral site games this season. Mitchell's Marquette teams were 7-6 (.538) in neutral games in her three seasons and 38-39 (.494) all-time.
GETTING DEFENSIVE Marquette is 54-9 (.857) under Terri Mitchell when holding opponents to 70 points or less, including 19-3 (.864) last season. Kansas was the first opponent to score less than 70 points and come out victorious since Cincinnati did so on Sat., Feb. 6.
The 30 points scored by Saint Louis on Fri. Feb. 12, is the lowest output by an opponent during Mitchell's tenure at Marquette.
TALE OF THE TIP The Golden Eagles won the opening tip-off in nine contests last season and were 6-3 (.767) in those games. Marquette was 15-5 (.750) in games in which it lost the tip-off.
AFTERNOON DELIGHT Marquette was 12-4 (.750) in afternoon games last season, including 8-3 (.727) on Sundays.
NIGHT RANGERS Marquette was 9-4 (.692) in evening games last year. The Golden Eagles were 4-2 on Saturdays, but lost their lone Saturday evening contest to Kansas in the NCAA Tournament.
THREE-PEAT Marquette has a streak of 185 straight contests having made at least one three-pointer. The last game without a three-pointer for MU was against UW-Milwaukee on Feb. 22, 1993. In the past seven seasons, Marquette has failed to hit a trey in just two contests.
Last year, the Golden Eagles hit a season-best 11 three-pointers at Tulane on Jan. 14, 1999. Marquette also attempted a season-high 30 threes at Tulane.
Against UW-Milwaukee on Feb. 17, 1999, the Golden Eagles hit a season-high 56%(10-18) of their three-point attempts.
GOLDEN EAGLES ON THE AIR Select Marquette women's basketball games will be broadcast live on the Marquette Basketball Radio Network by WJYI-1340 AM and WISN-1130 AM this season.
Kent Sommerfeld and Kareeda Chones will call all the action for at least 16 games this season, with at least two others being simulcast. WJYI will carry at least 14 games, with WISN airing at least four. Additional games from the postseason may be added.
The Golden Eagle Pregame Show will start approximately 15 minutes before the scheduled tip-off on most dates.
The follwoing games will be carried by WJYI:
Nov. 19 Iowa 10 p.m. (tape-delayed)Nov. 22 at Drake 7 p.m. (simulcast - tentative)Dec. 1 at UW-Milwaukee 7 p.m.Dec. 6 BYU 7 p.m.Dec. 8 Wisconsin 7 p.m.Dec. 11 at Syracuse 1 p.m. (simulcast - tentative)Dec. 18 Arkansas State 7 p.m.Dec. 30 DePaul 7 p.m.Jan. 7 Louisville 10 p.m. (tape-delayed)Jan. 20 UAB 7 p.m.Jan. 28 South Florida 7 p.m.Feb. 3 at Southern Miss 7 p.m.Feb. 13 at Louisville 1 p.m.Feb. 18 UNC Charlotte 7 p.m.March 3-6 C-USA Tournament TBA The follwoing games will be carried by WISN:Dec. 4 Dayton 1 p.m.Jan. 9 Cincinnati 2 p.m.Jan. 30 Houston 2 p.m.Feb. 20 Saint Louis 2 p.m.(The broadcast schedule is tentative and subject to change.)
The Golden Eagles will be featured on two nationally-televised games this season. Marquette's Sat., Feb. 5, game at Tulane will be aired by espn2 at 3 p.m. FOX Sports Net will carry the Golden Eagles' final game of the regular season, at DePaul on Sat., Feb. 26, at 11 a.m. Additional television games may be announced throughout the season.
FOR MORE INFORMATION Contact Marquette assistant sports information director Josh Sutter at (414) 288-6980 or at: joshua.sutter@marquette.edu
