Colorado State University Athletics
Up Next In Women?s Basketball ? vs. San Francisco
11/15/2004 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Click here to see the release in PDF format.
Click here to see the latest women's basketball stats.
Up Next: Women?s Basketball Season Opener - San Francisco
Game 1: November 19 - San Francisco 8 p.m. MT
Radio: KCOL 600 AM Brian Roth - Play-by-Play. Corbu Stathes - Color Commentator
Webcast: Broadcast by Yahoo! Sports. Go to CSURams.com and click on the Yahoo! icon to listen live.
Upcoming Home Game Promotions
Mini-Pack - Buy five games for $32: San Francisco, Pepperdine, Oregon, UConn, BYU
Discount Admission - $4 admission to UC Colorado Springs game with ticket stub from UNLV football game
Buy One Get One Free - Denver, Wyoming, UNLV, New Mexico
Practice Schedule (Tentative)
All times local to site
Day Date Place Time
Monday Nov. 15 IM 3-6 p.m.
Tuesday Nov. 16 Moby 3-6 p.m.
Wednesday Nov. 17 No Practice
Thursday Nov. 18 IM 4:30-6 p.m.
Friday Nov. 19 Moby Game - 8 p.m.
Saturday Nov. 20 No Practice
Sunday Nov. 21 South Bend, IN TBA
Monday Nov. 22 South Bend, IN Game - 7 p.m.
Tuesday Nov. 23 No Practice
Wednesday Nov. 24 IM 10 a.m.-12:30 p.m.
Thursday Nov. 25 Moby 8:30-10:30 a.m.
Friday Nov. 26 Moby Game - 7 p.m.
Saturday Nov. 27 Moby Game - 5 or 7 p.m.
Sunday Nov. 28 No Practice
Coach Chris Denker On The Radio
The Coors Light Ram Basketball Coaches? Show will air from 7-8 p.m. from the University Park in Fort Collins, Colo. The show will air on 600 KCOL in Fort Collins and 710 KNUS in Denver. Show dates are: Nov. 16, Nov. 23, Dec. 14, Jan. 11, Jan. 18, Jan. 25, Feb. 1, Feb. 8, Feb. 15, Feb. 22, Mar. 1 and Mar. 8.
Season Preview: After finishing 17-12 a year ago, and making it to the WNIT tournament for the second straight year, the team will look to match and hopefully improve upon that this year. The Rams lost two letterwinners from a year ago and return a solid nucleus of players, expected to compete for a conference title. After opening the year with two exhibition games the team will play the first of 13 non-conference games it will play this season at home against San Francisco. Other notable nonconference games on the Rams? schedule this season include Notre Dame on Nov. 22 in South Bend, Ind., as well as Colorado (12/8), Oregon (12/12) and defending National Champions UConn (12/23) at Moby Arena. The Rams will return their top three scorers from a year ago, marking only the fourth time in school history that has occurred. The most recent time this occurred was in the 2000-01 season when the Rams went 25-7 overall. In the 1998-99 season the team finished 33-3 after bringing back its top three scorers and in the 1987-88 season the team went 13-15.
Denker?s Season Openers: Head Coach Chris Denker is 2-0 in season openers at Colorado State. The Rams defeated San Francisco 76-58 his first season and then defeated Texas Southern 85-51 to start his second season.
Colorado State Season Openers: The Rams are 20-10 all-time in opening games and 21-9 all-time in home openers.
Coors-Rocky Mountain Invitational: For the 10th straight year Colorado State will play host to the Coors-Rocky Mountain Invitational tournament on November 26-27. This year?s field includes Holy Cross, UAB, Iona and Colorado State. There will be two games each day, the first at 5 p.m. and the second at 7 p.m., both nights. Last year Boston College won the tournament.
Juniors Scoring Together: Colorado State returns the top three scorers from a year ago in Vanessa Espinoza (12.9 ppg), Melissa Dennett (12.6 ppg) and Lindsay Thomas (12.0 ppg). In exhibition play, when the three juniors are all on the floor at the same time, Colorado State has outscored its opponents 56-14.
Exhibition Recap: Colorado State rolled through the exhibition season winning both of games easily. The Rams defeated Western State 89-39 in the first game and UCCS 75-31 in the second game.
Tough Defense: In the exhibition opener, Colorado State held Western State scorless for seven minutes in the first half. The Rams went on a 20-0 run over that span. In the second exhibition game of the season the Rams held UCCS scoreless for over seven minutes.
Fresh Faces: This year?s team welcomes two freshmen to the roster. Sara Hunter, a Fort Collins native and Casie Shepard from Prior Lake, Minn. will be looking to make significant contributions to this year?s team.
Hunter, a 5-8 guard, played her high school ball at Rocky Mountain High School where she was a four sport athlete, lettering four years in basketball and volleyball. Hunter also lettered once in tennis and track. At Rocky Mountain she was a three-year captain and earned all-conference honors all four years. Hunter was also named Northern Conference Player of the Year once and earned All-State honors twice. In 2004 she was named All-Colorado and was a nominee for the USA Junior Olympics.
Shepard, who joins the team as a forward, attended Prior Lake High School in Prior Lake, Minn., where she lettered in basketball three times and twice in volleyball. Shepard earned all-conference honors three times and was named to the all-state team once. Shepard also helped lead her team to two Minnesota Conference championships as well as third and fourth place finishes in the state championship her junior and senior years, respectively. In 2003-04 she was named to the Top-20 Miss Basketball in the state of Minnesota.
New Faces on the Bench: In the offseason Coach Denker added some new faces to his staff. Replacing Krista Poehler (who took an assistant coaching position at San Diego State) is Marcy Myers. Myers graduated from Dickinson State University in 2001. At DSU, Myers played one year of basketball, after transferring from Black Hills State University. Prior to joining the staff at CSU she was an assistant coach for the basketball and volleyball teams at Chadron State College. Also joining the Rams is Ryan Johnson who was named the director of basketball operations in the offseason. His responsibilities will include coordinating team camps, as well as serving as liaison for the Slam Dunk Club. Prior to coming to Colorado State Johnson spent the last eight years as a club coach in Colorado. He has spent time working with a wide variety of athletes on the fundamentals needed to compete at the high school level. Johnson spent the the 2000-2001 season as an assistant for the Arvada West High School girl?s basketball team, where he helped the team to a Sweet 16 appearance in the Colorado State High School tournament. From 1995-1999 he was an assistant coach at Wheat Ridge High School. Johnson graduated with a bachelor?s degree from DePauw University in 1995 and a master?s degree in sports management from Denver University in 2001.
Sticking Together: In addition to adding two freshmen to the roster, the Rams also added three transfers. Sophomores Brianna Willhite and Liz Kramer join the squad after transferring from Cloud County Community College in Concordia, Kan. and juniorJustine Square joins the team after playing one year at Otero Junior College in La Junta, Colo. The duo of Kramer and Willhite led their team to a 25-7 record a year ago, including 11-5 in league. Last year Kramer was team captain and was sixth in the Jayhawk Conference in three-point field goal percentage and 10th in three point field goals made (60). Willhite averaged 13.5 points a game and was named to the All-Conference and All-Region second teams.
Denker at CSU: Since arriving in Fort Collins in 2002 Head Coach Chris Denker has compiled quite a resume. At CSU his overall record is 38-25 (.603) which includes a 16-12 conference record.
Joinning The Team In 2005-06: Head Coach Chris Denker announced on Nov. 10 that the Rams have signed three players to National Letters of Intent for the 2005-06 season.
Fox TV Show Preview: Fox Sports Net Rocky Mountain will be airing a Colorado State basketball preview show on Dec. 2 at 9:30 p.m. Head Coach Chris Denker will be dicussing the Rams? upcoming season with host Keith Bleyer.
Starting Five: The Rams return three starters to the lineup this year. Junior Vanessa Espinosa, who led the team in scoring (12.9) as well as free throw percentage (.810) and three point efficiency (.455) a year ago will start at point guard. Junior Melissa Dennett, who was second on the team in scoring a year ago (12.6) will start at one forward position where she will be joined by three-year starter Lindsay Thomas at the other forward spot. A year ago Thomas led the team in both rebounds(209) and shooting percentage (.519) and was third in scoring average (12.0). Coach Denker has not made a decision as to who will fill the other two starting spots.
Sharing The Scoring Load: Colorado State?s offense did not center around one player last season. In 2004, the Rams had at least three players score in double figures in 23 of the 29 games. Furthermore, on 12 separate occasions, four or more players scored in double digits. Five different players led the team in scoring during a game and seven Rams scored in double figures in at least one contest.
Colorado State & Poudre School District Partnership
The Colorado State Athletic Department and the Poudre School District announced last fall a partnership in which student-athletes will serve as role models and mentors for elementary school students. As part of the partnership, Colorado State will recognize a different elementary school at fall and winter athletic events. The school attending women?s basketball games includes:
Date Opponent School
11-19 San Francisco Irish
11-30 Pepperdine Livermore
12-4 Texas-Pan American Lopez
12-12 Oregon O?Dea
12-21 Tennessee-Martin Putnam
1-4 Denver Riffenburgh
1-20 San Diego State Tavelli
1-22 UNLV Timnath
1-28 Wyoming Traut
2-10 Brigham Young Stove Prarie & Bauder
San Francisco Lady Dons Personnel Capsule
NO NAME HT POS Year Hometown/Last School PPG RPG
2 Jenni Jones 5-10 F JR Martinez, CA/Alhambra HS 5.4 1.5
3 Charmaine Ramos 5-9 G JR Hayward, CA/Tennyson HS 3.3 2.0
4 Jennifer Katsuyama 5-7 G SO Brea, CA/Brea Olinda HS 2.9 1.3
5 Leeane Jensen 6-3 C SR Morro Bay, CA/Morro Bay -- --
10 Katy Preston 6-2 C SO St. Cloud, MN/St. Cloud Tech HS 1.7 1.6
11 Toni Russell 5-3 G SR San Francisco, CA/Sacred Heart Cathedral 9.8 3.8
12 Dominique Carter 5-10 G/F FR Tracy, CA/Merrill F. West HS -- --
13 Nicole Warren 6-1 F RS JR Mill Valley, CA/Boston College -- --
14 Lashaunte Stephens 5-10 G FR Fresno, CA/Sunnyside HS -- --
20 Angela Gibson 6-0 F SR Oakland, CA/Oakland 3.2 3.9
21 Nykia Peace 5-7 G FR Los Angeles, CA/Bishop Montgomery HS -- --
22 Amber Grier 6-1 G/F SO Benton City, WA/Columbia Basin JC -- --
23 Mary Jane Krueger 6-2 C SR Quincy, CA/Qunicy 9.2 8.2
24 Ginger Gravelle 5-9 G FR Honolulu, HI/Iolani HS -- --
32 Jessy Preston 6-2 F SO St. Cloud, MN/St. Cloud Tech HS 12.2 4.2
44 Kourtney Shorts 6-2 C JR Spokane, WA/Spokane Falls CC 0.5 0.7
51 Breann Sitton 6-4 C SO Brush Prairie, WA/Idaho -- --
55 Lisa Olden 6-2 C FR Beaverton, OR/Westview HS -- --
Mary Hile-Nepfel - Head Coach, 18th Year
Heidi VanDerveer, Brittany Lindhe, Jesse Clark - Assistant Coaches
* Stats from 2003-2004 seaosn
