Fort Hays State University Women’s Basketball tips off the 2014-15 regular season campaign this weekend at the Radisson Hotel Roseville Classic in St. Paul, Minn. The Tigers will face Bemidji Stateon Friday and No. 10 Concordia-St. Paul on Saturday in the season-opening event, hosted by CU. Both games are at 5 p.m. from the Gangelhoff Center.
FHSU faces an early challenge for the year, taking on two regional opponents from the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference (NSIC). The Tigers return 12 players on this year’s roster and after winning 20 games for the third consecutive season, have built a program with expectations of success. Under the direction of the head coach Tony Hobson, entering his seventh season at FHSU, the Tigers went 21-8 last year and reached the MIAA Tournament Semifinals. The team just missed the NCAA Tournament, finishing ninth in the final Central Region rankings, with the top eight advancing.
The most intriguing matchup of weekend will be between two 2014 All-Americans in the post – Kate Lehman (FHSU) and Anika Whiting CU). Lehman, a senior this year, was a Division II Bulletin and WBCA All-American honorable mention, earning MIAA Defensive Player of the Year (2012-13 and 2013-14) honors while Whiting picked up Bulletin Fourth Team and Daktronics Honorable Mention All-American recognition last season, being named the NSIC Player of the Year in 2012-13.
FHSU’s Beth Bohuslavsky is another top returner after earning All-MIAA honorable mention last year. Bohuslavsky finished the season with a 2.69 assist-to-turnover ratio, which led the MIAA and was second nationally. The junior guard added 6.9 points per game while leading the team with 94 assists and 27.4 minutes played per game.
Other key components on this year’s roster include senior Keriann Shaw, juniors Chelsea Mason and Paige Lunsford, and sophomore Jill Faxon. Mason and Faxon had double-digit points in the Tigers’ exhibition at Division I Kansas while Lunsford led the team with seven rebounds in 30 minutes played (a team-high). Shaw averaged four rebounds per game with 30 steals in 2013-14.
Bemidji State was picked eighth in the NSIC Preseason Poll after losing its top three scorers from last season (Morgan Lee, Kate Warmack, Jessie Althoff). The Beavers will look to sophomore Hanna Zerr to carry over her success from last season, when she averaged 7.8 points, 4.3 rebounds and a team-high 2.8 assists per game in her freshman campaign. All-told, a young BSU team returns nine from last season’s roster, including six sophomores. Head coach Mike Curfman is in his 10th season at Bemidji State, compiling a 91-154 record in that span.
CU reached the Elite Eight in last year’s NCAA Tournament, and is poised for similar success after being picked first in the NSIC Preseason Poll and returning three starters. Ameshia Kearney played 34.4 minute sper game last season, averaging 12.4 points in her first season for the Golden Bears and Kionda Nicks teams with Whiting in the post. Nicks has blocked an average of 2.3 shots per game, adding 6.5 rebounds on average.