TEN QUESTIONS WITH...

You have played for two different coaching staff’s at UB. How difficult was it to adjust through the transition from the old coaching staff to the Linda Hill-MacDonald era?

It wasn’t really difficult at all. Coach Mac knows a lot, she did a very good job of helping us get comfortable with her system, so it wasn’t really a challenge.

You began your career at UB playing side-by-side with your older sister Allison during the 2004-05 season. Was it hard to adjust following Allison’s graduation in 2005?

It wasn’t hard to adjust, but I definitely missed her a lot. We were really close and we still are so it was more of a missing her thing than it was an adjustment.

How do you think the preseason helps you prepare for conference play and what type of things do you work on during that time?

It definitely helps because once we get here at school, everyone is focused, it’s kind of on school and on basketball. The preseason always helps because we get to work on things, individually, that we might not know that we need to work on in the summer and it helps us get in shape and get acclimated with the team.

Both you and teammate Heather Turner are three-year starters for the team. After going 4-24 your freshman campaign and 10-18 last season, how exciting has it been to help lead the program to such continued improvement?

It’s been really exciting and we hope to continue it, we want to keep it going. We’ve had a lot of fun together, our team has great chemistry and we have all grown together over the past year. It’s been a lot of fun.

Having lost two of your last four games by just three points and having one that went into overtime, what is your mindset heading into the middle of your conference schedule?

It’s time to take care of those little things, when you only lose a game by three points, there’s always something that you could have done before that and it’s just taking care of those little things. It’s always the little things that help with those wins.

After starting just four games games and averaging 5.9 points per game last season, Rachelle Matthys has stepped up this year, starting 14 of the team’s first 18 games. How important is the presence of players like Rachelle and Jamie Schiebner this year after losing last year’s second leading scorer, Brooke Meunier, to graduation?

“Rocco” (Rachelle Matthys) has done a great job for us and her presence is so important because she has a great shot and she works on her shot all the time and she shoots the ball so well that it helps take pressure off of Heather (Turner), having someone on the outside that can do that because that means that defenders have to come out and play her and it releases the triple-team or double-team off of Heather and then in turn, it’s easier for us to get the ball inside, so her presence is huge. Jamie, she’s been a great help to the team. She’s learning to play the ‘3’ and the ‘4’ now so she’s made a great adjustment, great maturity. She’s done an awesome job.

This season, the Bulls have added male practice players to the women’s team roster. What is the benefit of practicing against males in practice?

They’re much quicker and physically, they’re stronger. They help Heather out, they help all of us out as far as quickness and for us to read and react and they help Heather out, in terms of being physical because it’s physical in the post, they help all of our post players out. It’s very physical down in the post and the MAC is very physical. They’re physical with us, which helps prepare us for the games.

Last season you finished first in the MAC in three-point field goal percentage for overall games (.413). Also, earlier this year, you hit a personal best six three-pointers against both Ohio and Toledo and on Jan. 17 against Kent State, you hit three of four three-pointers in a span of 1:06. What is the key to getting off a good long-range shot?

I don’t really know what the key is, I think it’s because you practice it so much that it becomes comfort and you just have to read and react, you know when you’re going to be open, you know when you’re not. My teammates are great about setting people up for success, setting good screens and finding the open people so I think that has a lot to do with getting that open shot and getting it off.

Your father is a Senior Master Sergeant in the Springfield Air National Guard and your sister (Allison) is a police officer. What are your future career goals and have you ever considered any area of law enforcement?

I don’t know about law enforcement, it’s a very interesting area, my sister is loving it but I think for my future, I’m not really sure yet, but I want to be in the medical field somewhere helping people, I like to help people, so that’s my aspiration.

What has been your favorite moment as a UB student-athlete?

I would have to say my favorite moment has been growing with our team. Our team chemistry has gotten so much better. We have fun both on and off the court and that’s definitely my favorite.

The “10 Questions with…” feature is compiled by Jackie O’Brien.