LBSU women’s basketball picked 5th

All signs point to progress for first-year head coach Jody Wynn after inheriting a team that finished at the bottom of the Big West Conference last season.

The 49ers gathered 99 points and were selected to finish fifth in the Big West Preseason Media Poll. Coach Wynn doesn’t think much of the preseason rankings.

“The rankings are nice and everything, but no one has played a game. It really doesn’t mean a whole lot,” Wynn said.

Wynn added that the team has something to prove.

“Honestly I don’t care where they picked us to finish. We’re on a mission and we have a goal to win a conference championship,” she said.

UC Santa Barbara received 10 first-place votes and racked up 162 points overall as the favorite to win the Big West title. The defending Big West champion Gauchos narrowly beat out UC Davis, who received six first-place votes — 155 points overall — to finish second in the poll.

UCSB has a single returning starter and is looking to win its third consecutive conference title, and 14th title overall. UCD might have the upper hand in the conference, considering the Aggies will be the only squad in the Big West that boasts five returning starters.

Cal Poly nabbed three first-place votes and is expected to duplicate its third-place finish from last season.

UC Riverside placed fourth in the rankings and received one first-place vote. The Highlanders are the only team in the Big West who will not have a returning starter.

The Big West was rounded out by the University of Pacific (sixth, 87 points), followed by LBSU-rival Cal State Fullerton (seventh, 59 points), Cal State Northridge (eighth, 41 points) and UC Irvine (ninth, 39 points).

LBSU had two players, Whitney Fields and Karina Figueroa, selected to the 2009-10 preseason all-conference team.

Fields led the Big West with 8.7 rebounds per game in conference action, which earned her second-team recognition. In addition, she also led the Big West with 10 double-doubles. She returns as the 49ers’ top scorer with 12.6 points per game.

Fields was glad that they weren’t picked to finish last considering how the team faired last season.

“We’re not settling for fifth, we’re settling for first place,” Fields said.

Figueroa returns to the lineup after sitting out last year because of an injury. Prior to her injury, she was selected twice to the All-Big West second team.

“Rankings are rankings,” Figueroa said. “We’ll just wait until the end to see where we are at.”

Conference coaches decided not to conduct a coaches’ poll this season.
 

Comments powered by Disqus