Lady Toreros trying to find groove

The University of San Diego women’s basketball team opened the season on November
14th with a 19 point victory over cross-town rival UCSD. Junior forward Emily Hatch led the team with a career high of 21 points, as the Toreros beat the Tritons 88-69. Head Coach Cindy Fisher looks to the girls to step up this season with a young roster.
Despite the fact that the team was voted to finish sixth in a preseason WCC coaches’ poll, junior guard Sam Child feels that the team is underestimated and uses that as a drive to urge the team to victory. “It’s just motivation to prove them all wrong that we are still a great team that can and will compete with the best of the best in the WCC! We have had a really, really tough preseason to get us as prepared as we can for the WCC play.”
The women continued to roll through early November with victories over Tennessee
State 79-45 and CSUN 90-54 but the team fell short to DePaul University 84-64, Arizona University 65-55 and San Diego State 79-52. Coming off of a bumpy start, the ladies were disappointed with the loss to SDSU, ranked No.22 overall in the Top 25 this season but they do not look like they are about to slow down.
Guard Morgan Woodrow expects to have a better team this year. “We’re trying hard to find our flow without Kiva Herman and Amber Sprague but we’re a young team that will fight for every game. The loss to State was rough and it was an eye opener for us to really step up and play at a higher level to win.”
With the leadership of captains Dominique
Connors and Morgan Henderson this year’s team looks to improve upon last year’s record of 19-13 and out do their second place finish in the WCC Championships
last year. Center Nya Mason stated, “Ultimately, the main goal is a conference tournament championship and we’re all about handling business to put us in the best position to make that goal a reality.”
With three returning starters from the 2008-09 season, the team is off to a solid start. This year’s starters, leading the team in scoring, are returning sophmore point guard Dominique Conners, sophomore guard Morgan Woodrow, juniors guard Sam Child and forward Emily Hatch and senior forward Morgan Henderson.
The Toreros concluded a busy week of three games in six days on Sunday against the Gauchos of UC Santa Barbara in the JCP with a loss 75-65. The next Torero home game is Thurs. night Dec. 3rd against the UNLV Running Rebels at 5 p.m. in the Jenny Craig Pavilion.