Elizabethtown College Women’s Basketball Preview

ELIZABETHTOWN , Pa. --- The 2005-06 season will witness a significant changing of the guard for the Elizabethtown College women's basketball team. This year's team has just two seniors, no juniors, four sophomores and seven first-year students, making the 2005-06 Blue Jays an exceptionally young squad that has the opportunity to set a strongly positive tone for the next several years.

            Among the returning starters are the two seniors and one of the sophomores. Senior co-captains Cristin Braun ( Exton , PA /Bishop Shanahan) and Dana Voit ( Jefferson Hills , PA /Thomas Jefferson) both return. Braun, a forward, averaged 9.7 points per game last year and is the team's top returning rebounder with an average of 6.2 per game. She led Etown in blocked shots with 20, and she had 52 assists and 39 steals. Voit, a shooting guard, averaged 9.2 points and 3.8 rebounds per game last year. She was Etown's top three-point shooter in 2004-05, hitting 40 out of 156 attempts (25.6%) to lead the team. She also had 56 assists, second on the team, and 48 steals, second on the team as well, last year. As the team's captains, they will play a key role in shaping the future of the program for the next several years.

            The other returning starter is sophomore forward Amanda Reid ( Nazareth , PA / Nazareth Area), who worked her way into the lineup at mid-season as a first-year student last year. She averaged 5.0 rebounds and 5.3 points per game while averaging 21 minutes played per game in 2004-05.

            Also returning for Etown are three sophomores who played key roles off the bench as first-year students last year. Erin Walton (Columbus, NJ/Northern Burlington Co.) quickly emerged as the Blue Jays' principal “sixth man” last year and wound up leading the entire team in scoring. She averaged 12.8 points and 3.9 rebounds in 24 minutes per game while coming off the bench in 20 games and starting four times in 2004-05. Walton also had 40 assists and 30 steals, and she shot 74-for-100 from the free throw line last year. Forward and center Audrey Hitz (Lebanon, PA/Annville-Cleona) averaged 12.8 minutes played per game as a rookie last year and averaged 2.9 points and 3.6 rebounds per game. She also shot 44.2% (23-for-52) from the field in 2004-05. Point guard Claire Davis ( Havertown , PA / Merion Mercy Academy ) gained valuable experience as Etown's backup at that position as a first-year student in 2004-05. She averaged 10 minutes played per game, and, during that time, she totaled 26 assists and 17 steals while averaging 1.8 points and 1.0 rebounds per game. Davis also shot 10-for-30 (33.3%) from three-point range last year.

            Added to this group of six returning players is a class of seven first-year students, many of whom, like the four returning players who were first-years on last year's team, will see themselves making significant contributions early in their careers. The seven rookies on the team include, in alphabetical order, forward and center Sarah Commander (Woodstock, MD/Mount Hebron), guard Megan Deldeo (Hockessin, DE/St. Mark's), guard Mell Fitzpatrick (Hamburg, PA/Hamburg Area), forward and center Melissa Meyer (Vineland, NJ/Sacred Heart), forward Jenn Montague (Newark, DE/St. Mark's), guard Lindsay Pecht (Milroy, PA/Belleville Mennonite) and guard and forward Megan Quinn (Millersville, PA/Penn Manor).

            Among the incoming guards, Deldeo earned first and second team honors every year of her high school career at St. Mark's. Fitzpatrick earned both first and second team all-division honors while a point guard at Hamburg Area High School , and she was her team's MVP in 2004 and the team's three-point leader in 2005. Pecht was the co-MVP of her team in her senior year as a point guard at Belleville Mennonite School . Quinn was a Lancaster/Lebanon League Section I first team all-star at Penn Manor High School while playing both guard and forward.

            Among the forwards and centers, Meyer won second team honors while playing for Sacred Heart High School , which won New Jersey state championships in her sophomore and senior years. Montague played forward for St. Mark's in Delaware . Commander is a rarity among Division III players with a height of 6'6.”

            Elizabethtown will open its 2005-06 season at the perennially difficult Marymount University Tip-Off Classic in Arlington , Va. for three games from November 18 to November 20.