TEN QUESTIONS WITH...

Hailing from Western-NY, how great has it been to have such a large amount of success playing college basketball in your own backyard?

Being a hometown girl, has led to a lot of my success because I have such a support system behind me here, in my team as well as my family and friends. They constantly stride to get to the games and be there for me as much as possible so when I’m on the court and I’m playing I know I have people out there that I know I need to show and prove to that its worth being there.

You were named to the pre-season All-MAC team this season. Do you feel any pressure heading into the season with regards to the honor?

Of course there’s pressure, but its good pressure, I’m going to be going out there with a bulls-eye on my back, but I have faith in my team and my teammates that it won’t cause any problems.

You don’t open up the Mid-American Conference portion of your schedule until the first week of January. How does having almost two months of non-league games help the team prepare to face MAC foes?

It gives us a long time period to learn about things that we need to do and improve on and things we’re working on, we’ll be able to finish that before we get to the MAC season because once we get to the MAC, it all starts going real quickly so facing all of these teams beforehand is just preparing us and getting us ready for that.

Last season, you finished sixth in the nation and first in the MAC in field-goal percentage, converting 61.1-percent of your shots. What is the key to getting a good shot off?

It all starts with my teammates giving me a good pass inside, I would say. They are really good at getting me the ball when I’m open and when I need it. Steph (Stephanie Bennett), Rocco (Rachelle Matthys), Bindy (Belinda Gibb), all the outside perimeter players make sure that they feed me the ball in the right time period so my teammates are really good at helping me out with that.

With only four freshmen on this year’s squad, and four of five starters, including yourself, with a year of experience playing for second-year head coach Linda Hill-MacDonald, are there raised expectations or a higher comfort level this season, as opposed to last?

I feel that there definitely is a higher comfort level right now. A couple of us have been playing together for three years and then there are the new girls that came in but Coach Mac makes it comfortable for us playing with each other because she explains things so well. The raised expectations, of course there’s raised expectations, there’s always expectations to be met, you never want to set expectations lower or at a level you think you’re going to get. You want it higher then possible so that you have something to stride and reach for.

Last season, the team finished 10-18 overall, improving upon a 4-24 record in 2004-05. What do you think triggered the improvement and do you expect it to continue into this season?

I think a big part of that was the coaching change, Coach MacDonald, she’s a great person, she knows what she’s talking about and she set us up for success, telling us what we need to know about our opponents, and preparing us for it in practice and the team going at each other.

The Bulls have players from four different countries on the roster. How have you been able to gel with your teammates so far?

Our team has been really good to each other, gelling just came naturally, as soon as we all walked in those doors onto that court with each other. There were no problems, we always have fun, we’re a big jokester team and the players from different countries, they just taught us a lot about their countries, it was no different from anybody else. It’s been a great experience for all of us.

All of the winter sports teams have to make a couple of pretty large sacrifices during the season, having a shortened Thanksgiving and an extremely brief Winter Break. Is it tough not having as lengthily a period of downtime, compared with the general student population?

It’s hard when you don’t have as much time to be with your family and things like that but then we as a team become each other’s family and we’re there for each other during those holidays and things. As a local girl, I try and include the girls with my family for short Thanksgiving breaks and things like that. All the girls’ families come in a lot so that they can see them during breaks but we have goal in mind and for that we have sacrifices we need to make.

Over the past few years, Alumni Arena has been renovated and you’ve also seen the finishing of the women’s basketball locker room and the Stephen Walsh basketball offices. How exciting has it been to see UB’s commitment to basketball grow in your time as a student-athlete?

Their commitment has been one of the best things because to see their support in us gives us faith and makes us feel good and want to succeed and make UB a big name.

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

Beating Texas-San Antonio (Dec. 30, 2005). We came in there as the underdog and people thought that we were going to get blown away but it all changed around, we worked hard as a team and came in prepared and beat them. It was probably the best feeling. And the weather wasn’t bad.

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