Women's Basketball Set To Open Fifth Season Of Brown Era Tuesday Evening As Skyhawks Travel To St. Thomas Aquinas For Northeast-10/NYCAC Challenge

November 14, 2005

2005-2006 Stonehill College Women's Basketball

6:00 p.m. EST

LET THE GAMES BEGIN: Stonehill begins its 35th season of varsity competition this evening as the Skyhawks square off with the St. Thomas Aquinas Spartans as part of the Northeast-10/NYCAC Challenge. Stonehill returns 10 letterwinners and three starters back from a 2004-2005 squad that posted 14 victories while notching the program's 34th consecutive winning campaign. St. Thomas Aquinas also returns 10 letterwinners from a squad that posted 20 victories last winter while capturing the New York Collegiate Athletic Conference regular season title with a 19-5 league slate.

LAST MEETING: Stonehill and St. Thomas Aquinas last met on March 14, 2003 in the 2003 NCAA Division II Northeast Regional Quarterfinals at Bentley's Dana Center in Waltham, Mass., and the Skyhawks posted am 83-49 victory over the Spartans. Kristen McDonnell led four players in double figures with 20 points in that triumph for Stonehill.

THE SERIES: The 2003 NCAA Northeast Regional quarterfinal round match-up marks the only series meeting between Stonehill and St. Thomas Aquinas.

THE SKYHAWKS: Junior Alisha Collins (Port Chester, N.Y./Trinity Catholic) averaged 12 points and 5.4 rebounds per game last season for Stonehill, while fellow junior Tiffany Huggins (Stoughton, Mass./Brockton) added 8.7 points and 6.3 rebounds. Junior Kim Morast (Bridgewater, Mass./Bridgewater-Raynham) added 7.4 points per game for the Skyhawks, including 21 three-pointers.

THE SPARTANS: Senior Kelly McManus is the leading returning scorer for St. Thomas Aquinas, as she averaged 12.8 points per game.

HEAD COACH TRISHA BROWN: Trisha Brown begins her fifth season as Head Women's Basketball Coach at Stonehill College. A 1987 graduate of Harvard, Brown is just the third head coach in the 35-year history of varsity women's basketball at Stonehill, as she has posted a 72-44

(.621) mark during her tenure and has led the Skyhawks to back-to-back NCAA appearances in 2003 and 2004. Brown, who helped lead Harvard to one of the biggest upsets in college basketball history when the Crimson knocked off top-seeded Stanford in the 1998 NCAA Division I first round, is assisted by Kelly Thompson (Springfield '02) and former Skyhawk standout Kaitlyn O'Malley (Stonehill '04). Brown is 1-0 during her career against St. Thomas Aquinas.

THE DEFENSE NEVER RESTS: Stonehill has won 46 of its last 47 outings when holding an opponent to 59 or fewer points, a string that dates back to February 2001.

AYE, AYE CAPTAINS: Seniors Bethany Roderigue (Winslow, Maine/Winslow) and Barbara Dauplaise (Brockton, Mass./Brockton) have been named as co-captains for the 2005-2006 edition of Stonehill Women's Basketball. Roderigue averaged 4.4 points per game and led the Skyhawks with 28 three-pointers last season, while Dauplaise averaged 2.2 points per game and chipped in with 11 three-pointers.

TWENTY-TWENTY VISION: Stonehill reached the 20-win plateau for the second time in Trisha Brown's three-year tenure as head coach and for the 17th time in the program's illustrious 34-year history in 2003-2004. The Skyhawks have won 20 or more games on nine occasions since 1991, including a school-record 30 victories during the 1994-95 campaign. Brown and former Stonehill mentor Kelly Hart have each recorded a pair of 20-win seasons on the bench, as Skyhawk Director of Athletics Paula Sullivan won 20 or more games on 15 occasions during her 25-year tenure as Stonehill's head coach.

THIRTY-THREE IN A ROW, LOOK AT EM GO: Stonehill has posted 34 straight winning campaigns after last year's 14-win season, a streak that dates back to the program's inception in 1971. The Skyhawks recorded 25 of those winning campaigns during current Director of Athletics Paula Sullivan's tenure as head coach, and former Stonehill mentor Kelly Hart carried that streak to 30 seasons before Trisha Brown took over in 2001.

THE 600 CLUB: The January 8, 2003 victory over Saint Anselm was the 600th win in the 34-year history of Stonehill women's basketball, as the Skyhawks have amassed an overall record of 648-252 (.720) over that time span. Stonehill became the 10th NCAA Division II member institution with 600 victories, as the Skyhawks rank as the eighth winningest team in Division II history and are 11th on the all-time Division II victories list.

HOME SWEET HOME: Merkert Gymnasium has certainly provided a distinct home court advantage for Stonehill, as the Skyhawks amassed an incredible mark of 114-18 (.864) at home during the 1990's. Over the last 11 seasons alone, Stonehill is 134-35 (.793) at Merkert Gymnasium.

SKYHAWK TALK: Stonehill has played 900 contests in 34 varsity seasons of action The Skyhawks are 17-2 (.895) in non-conference play in Brown's first four seasonsStonehill has posted 3-0 starts in each of its four campaigns under Brown, who has compiled a 13-1 (.929) mark during the month of NovemberStonehill's 8-1 start last winter was its second in three seasonsStonehill is 57-30 (.655) in its last 87 contests dating back to November 2002.

SKYHAWKS ON THE WEB: For the second straight season, Stonehill basketball can be accessed on the world wide web through Free Teamline, a service of TRZ Sports of Kent, Ohio. A total of 15 Skyhawk regular season women's basketball broadcasts will be available throughout the 2005-2006 season via Free Teamline by accessing the official Stonehill Athletics website at www.stonehillskyhawks.com, powered by Presto Sports. Returning to call all of action of Stonehill basketball once again this winter is the tandem of Charlie Bergeron and Brian Buckley, who have served as the voices of Skyhawk Basketball since 1998.

WHO'S NEXT: Stonehill returns to action this weekend when the Skyhawks travel to Worcester, Mass. to participate in the 2005 Assumption Tip-Off Classic. The Skyhawks square off with Molloy in first round play on Friday, November 18th beginning at 6:00 p.m. EST at Laska Gymnasium, and Stonehill will take on Adelphi in second round action on Saturday, November 19th at Laska Gymnasium beginning at 2:00 p.m. EST.