Vassar College Women’s Basketball Preview

POUGHKEEPSIE – The Vassar College women’s basketball team tips off its 2016-17 season against New Paltz at the Athletics and Fitness Center on Tuesday, Nov. 15. Game time is set to start at 6 p.m.

Head coach Candice Brown is back for her eighth season to lead the program, alongside new assistant coach Claire Mattox, who replaced former assistant Carolyn Crampton.
In addition to adding Mattox, the Brewers also brought on a freshman class of five: Hope Narozniak, Jackie Cenan, Lexi Mousley, Isa Peczuh and Sophie Nick. Vassar also retains a majority of its young roster this season after saying goodbye to four seniors: Colleen O’Connell, Caitlin Drakeley, Alex Moon and Rose Serafini.

Leading the pack this year are juniors Samarah Cook and Ariella Rosenthal, as the team has no seniors. Also, Kim Romanoff returns after a year away for her junior season.
“We have always had chemistry, but I think it’s going to come together a lot better this year,” Brown said.

This season, Brown is instilling a new motion offense, which will allow the Brewers to play in a more fluid style.

“I think we’re going to be able to get out and run this year, and we weren’t really able to do that last year,” Brown said. “And I think our personnel from top to bottom is better. We have more scorers. We’re not reliant on just three different players. I think that any given day, we could potentially have five players in double figures, and I think that’s really going to help us over the course of the season.”

The Brewers return multiple offensive threats, including Rosenthal, a 2015-16 All-Liberty League First Team honoree, who averaged a team-leading 16.1 points per game, adding 2.1 assists per game and 33 steals.

“Our strengths are definitely our speed,” Rosenthal said. “We’re quick this year. I think we’re athletic, and that’s something that we’ve kind of lacked in years past. I think we’re going to use that to our advantage a lot. We don’t have that much size, but our speed is definitely going to help us with trapping and playing full-court press, and then just running and gunning, so we don’t have to always play set offenses, which is really fun to do.”

Also look out for sophomore guard Nicole Teta, who had an incredible first season with the Brewers where she played in all 25 games, scored an average of 8.6 points and ranked first on the team with 42 three-pointers made on 43 percent shooting.

Following their home-opener versus New Paltz, the Brewers will face three opponents on the road before returning to Poughkeepsie for a trifecta of games.

Vassar will fly to San Juan, Puerto Rico for December games against Messiah College and DePauw University before ending 2016 with the start of conference play at Skidmore College and Union College.

The Brewers will kick off the New Years with five home games, hosting Liberty League opponents through mid-January before ending the month with three conference games on the road.

February begins with a pair of home games before playing a trifecta of away games through the middle of the month. The Brewers play their final home game of the regular season on Feb. 17, hosting Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute at AFC.

Last season, the Brewers went out with a bang in the season finale against RPI with an 88-74 win, the second-most points scored in program history. Vassar hopes to build upon its 2015-16 campaign, in which the Brewers finished 10-15 overall and 7-9 in conference play.
“We’re really young, and it’s definitely a building year,” Cook said, “but I think it’s going to be a successful year. We have a lot of individual talent, and I’m really looking forward to seeing how it all comes together in the end.”