WBB Begins Season with No. 22 Dayton
11/15/2014 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
McCarthey Athletic Center (6,000) | Spokane, Wash. TV: SWX/TheW.tv | Radio: The Key 1050 AM Live Video | Live Stats | Gonzaga Notes | Dayton Notes
OPENING DAY FOR THE ZAGS
• Gonzaga opens its 2014-15 season against the 22nd-ranked team in the country, Dayton, Sunday.
• It will also be the head coaching debut for Lisa Fortier, who takes the reins for the Zags.
• Tip-off is scheduled for 2:05 p.m. The game will be on SWX throughout the Spokane area.
THE LAST TIME OUT
• Gonzaga eased past Eastern Oregon in an exhibition on Nov. 2, 92-44.
• Lindsay Sherbert scored a game-high 16 points, making 4-of-5 from behind-the-arc.
• Shelby Cheslek chipped in a double-double performance with 10 points and 14 rebounds.
• Five Bulldogs finished in double-digit scoring.
• The Zags had a 50-24 edge on the boards, including grabbing 24 offensive rebounds.
• GU held Eastern Oregon to 17 made field goals, styming the Mountaineers to 1-of-9 from three-point range.
GONZAGA STORYLINES
• Gonzaga has won the last three season-openers dating back to a 79-73 loss at USC in 2010.
• The Bulldogs are 9-0 in home openers inside the McCarthey Athletic Center.
• GU is 1-4 against ranked teams in regular season contests inside the McCarthey Athletic Center, with the last game being a 79-50 victory over No. 24 San Diego on Jan. 11.
• The Zags have won 24 consecutive regular season games in the McCarthey Athletic Center, dating back to a 66-63 loss to Saint Mary's in 2012.
ABOUT THE FLYERS
• Dayton enters the 2014-15 season ranked No. 22 in both the AP and USA Today polls.
• It was upset in its season-opener at Washington State Friday, 76-60.
• The Flyers, which have made the NCAA Tournament the last five years, lost only one player to graduation following their 23-8 season in 2013-14.
• UD has won three straight Atlantic 10 Conference titles. It was picked the preseason favorite to win for a fourth consecutive time.
• Andrea Hoover and Ally Malott were both selected to to the preseason Atlantic 10 All-Conference first team.
SERIES HISTORY
• Sunday is the second all-time meeting between Gonzaga and Dayton.
• The Zags won the first matchup, 82-76, at the Las Vegas Holiday Hoops Classic in 2011. Katelan Redmon led five double-digit scoring Bulldogs with 20 points.
• Sunny Greinacher and Keani Albanez combined for seven minutes.
• Three current Dayton players, Andrea Hoover, Ally Malott, and Cassie Sant, combined for 64 minutes. Hoover scored 13 points and grabbed seven rebounds.
ABOUT THE GONZAGA BULLDOGS:
• Gonzaga University women's basketball team ended their 2013-14 schedule with a loss to James Madison in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
• The Zags were seeded sixth, their highest seed ever in the NCAA Tournament.
• GU defeated BYU in the WCC Title game to win its second-straight WCC Tournament Championship and fifth in six years.
• The Bulldogs have reached 20 wins in eight straight seasons.
WHAT WE RETURNED:
• Gonzaga returns nine letterwinners, including three starters from last year's squad. It lost four players to graduation.
• Overall, the Zags returned 60.4 percent of its scoring from the 2013-14 season and 73.3 percent of its rebounding.
• Keani Albanez, Sunny Greinacher and Lindsey Sherbert all return after averaging more than 20 minutes a game last season.
• The Bulldogs welcome only one transfer, Georgia Stirton, from North Idaho College. There are also three incoming freshman from high school squads.
WHO ARE THE NEWCOMERS:
• Gonzaga has a total of six new faces to the 2014-15 team.
• Georgia Stirton transfers in from North Idaho College. The incoming junior was named the Region 18 Player of the Year and NJCAA second team All-American.
• There are three true freshmen on the roster. Jill Barta comes to Gonzaga following an undefeated high school career in Fairfield, Mont. Kacie Bosch was named the top female player in Alberta. Emma Stach was one of the top young players in Germany.
• Emma Wolfram will make her debut on the court after redshirting in 2013-14.
• Melissa Holland also joins the roster after being a team manager and practice player.
NEW FACES ON THE SIDELINES:
• The Zags begin the Lisa Fortier head coaching era this season.
• Fortier has been an assistant for GU the past seven seasons, and now enters her first year as a head coach.
• She took over for Kelly Graves, who is now at Oregon, in April.
• Fortier is joined by a completely new staff at Gonzaga.
• Jordan Green, Stacy Clinesmith and Craig Fortier are all first year assistants at GU.
• Former Gonzaga players, Amanda Brown and Heather Bowman, filled the Director of Operations and Video Coordinator positions.
GREINACHER TABBED PRESEASON ALL-WCC:
• The West Coast Conference announced its annual preseason All-Conference team and Sunny Greinacher was named to the select squad.
• The senior was named to the All-WCC postseason squad last year. The forward was named to the All-Freshman team in 2012 and earned All-WCC honorable mention in 2012-13.
• Over the 18 league games last season, Greinacher averaged 10.9 points and 4.8 rebounds, while shooting an impressive 48.7 percent (75-of-154) from the field and 75.4 percent (46-of-61) at the charity stripe.
BULLDOGS PICKED AS WCC PRESEASON FAVORITES:
• Gonzaga was selected as the preseason favorite to win the West Coast Conference title when the annual coaches' poll was released.
• The Zags received seven of the nine possible first-place votes for 78 points in the poll.
• BYU was picked second, received two first-place votes and 71 points. San Diego was selected third with one first-place vote and 65 points, just ahead of Pacific's 60 points.
FORTIER INKS TRIO ON SIGNING DAY:
• The first signing day of the Lisa Fortier era is in the books for Gonzaga University women's basketball, and it was a highly successful one.
• Zykera Rice, a 6-1 forward from Tacoma, Wash, is a three-sport athlete at Clover Park High School. Last season, she averaged 17 points and 13 rebounds per game.
• Laura Stockton, daughter of John and sister to David, will continue the family name for GU. At Gonzaga Prep in 2013-14, she averaged 13.1 points, 4.8 assists, and 2.8 steals per game.
• Zhane Templeton of Grand Prairie, Texas, was named Texas Girls Coaches Association First Team Class 5A All-State and first team All-District 7-5A.
IN THE MCCARTHEY ATHLETIC CENTER:
• Since the McCarthey Athletic Center opened in 2004, Gonzaga has gone 134-16 overall.
• The Bulldogs went undefeated at 14-0 in the McCarthey Athletic Center during the 2004-05 campaign, the first season it was open; went 15-0 during the 2009-10 season and finished last season with a perfect 16-0 record.
• Five of the 16 losses have been to Pacific-12 Conference members - Stanford (twice), Arizona State, USC and Washington State - and three to West Coast Conference schools.
WHERE THE ATTENDANCE RANKS:
• Gonzaga ranked 16th in the nation in attendance with a home average of 5,426 fans last season. Tennessee led the nation with an average of 11,600 fans per game.
• The Zags ended the 2012-13 season ranked a school-high 13th in home attendance averaging 5,678 fans for its 17 home games. The Bulldogs also had a school record seven sellouts last year.
• In 2011-12, the Bulldogs averaged 5,442 fans for their 17 home games which stood 14th in the NCAA for women's basketball attendance.
ZAGS CLINCH WCC TITLE OUTRIGHT; 10-STRAIGHT:
• The Gonzaga women clinched the 2013-14 West Coast Conference regular-season title outright with its 10-point win over Saint Mary's, Feb. 27.
• The Bulldogs have now won an unprecedented 10-straight league titles, dating back to the 2004-05 campaign.
• Gonzaga has won nine out of the 10 outright; sharing the 2005-06 crown with Santa Clara.
• The Zags have amassed a 136-12 league record over those 10 years.
SEVENTH LONGEST CONFERENCE TITLE STREAK:
The Gonzaga University women's basketball team captured its unprecedented 10th-straight West Coast Conference regular-season title in 2013-14, finishing league with a 16-2 record. In the Bulldogs decade-long reign, they piled up an astonishing 136-12 record against conference foes. That includes three undefeated seasons. Their record is the seventh longest streak in the nation.
1) Wisconsin-Green Bay, Horizon League, 16 (1998-14)
2) Louisiana Tech, Sun Belt and WAC, 15 (1993-2007)
3) Stanford, Pac-12, 14 in a row (2002-14)
4) Chattanooga, Southern, 11 in a row (2000-10)
5) Stanford, Pac-12, 10 in a row (1989-1998)
6) Marist, Metro Atlantic, 11th a row (2005-14)
7) Gonzaga, West Coast, 10 in a row (2005-14)
8) Liberty, Big South, nine in a row (1998-2006)
9) Connecticut, Big East, nine in a row (1994-2002)
Only Gonzaga, Stanford, Marist and Wisconsin-Green Bay have active streaks.
BOTH GONZAGA WOMEN AND MEN IN NCAA TOURNAMENT:
• Gonzaga was one of 25 institutions to have its women's and men's basketball teams make the NCAA Tournament last year.
