TEN QUESTIONS WITH...

Coming from Denmark, Western Australia, detail some of your athletic experiences from high school through your time with the Lakeside Lightning of the Australian State Basketball League.
I started at Denmark High School, which is in a small country town on the southern coast of West Australia. I finished grade 10 there, and then went to school in Perth – the major city in my state – for the next two years.

I was also involved in the State Basketball League, which is one level under the professional league, and played for the Lakeside Lightning for two seasons.

How did you come about choosing to attend UB? What did UB have that swayed you in comparison to some of the other schools that you looked at?
I was pretty much just taking wild guesses as I went about e-mailing schools. I then sent a tape to the schools that got back to me. I thought that going to New York would be kind of cool, so I used a search engine to find universities in New York and Buffalo was one of the first ones that came back. Then I came in on a 48-hour visit and spent two days at UB.

When did you decide to come over to the United States to play college basketball?
After I finished school at Perth, I took a year off to work before deciding what to do next in terms of universities. I told myself that I would go back to school, but I did not, so I then realized to look into coming to the United States.

How much of an advantage was it for you to come over in January of last year as far as giving yourself time to adjust to a different country?
I think it helped a lot. It gave me a chance to adjust to a different lifestyle in general – and to the weather. I think if I had to come over and immediately jump into things, I would not have been able to handle it so well.

How much did you talk to Kate McMeeken-Ruscoe – a New Zealander who was on last year’s UB team – about adjusting to the United States?
She had been in Hawaii prior to coming to UB, so she was kind of Americanized. But she did have quite a bit to offer to me as far as what to expect and how do deal with certain cultural differences.

Though it is a few years down the road, what plans do you have after UB? Do you have a desire to continue playing basketball?
At the moment, I plan on going back home. Hopefully I can get looked at by some professional team in Australia once I am done here. I would probably look to go play for a team on the east coast of Australia.

Now that your team is in the thick of the Mid-American Conference schedule, do you feel that you have been effectively able to put the non-conference portion of the season behind you?
Now that we’re into MAC play, I feel we are starting to gel as a team. We’re definitely looking forward to continuing conference play. That is where our focus is at.

During a stretch of games that spanned into the beginning of this week, your team has played five games in 10 days. What types of challenges does that present?
Quite a few. For one, you miss time at school. There is a lot of work to catch up on when you get back from a road trip. The traveling also takes a lot out of you.

How much harder does that become with only eight healthy players on your roster?
The shorter bench makes it all the more difficult. Right now, everyone is in a situation where they need to contribute since we are all playing. But that same circumstance can be looked it in a positive way, too.

In the UB women's basketball media guide, you listed surfing as a hobby. Have you been able to do so since coming over to the United States?
No, since coming over here I have not been any place with a coastline. Of course, Coach (Dozier) is banning me from going skiing or snowboarding because of the obvious injury hazards. But eventually, I would love to visit a place like California, which I’ve heard has a very nice coastline.

-The "10 Questions with…" feature is compiled by Geoff Nason.