With the University of Evansville women’s basketball team beginning practice this past weekend, a new chapter in the history of UE women’s basketball has officially begun, as the Misty Murphy Era at Evansville is now underway.

Murphy was named the ninth women’s basketball coach in school history this past May, after a successful stint as associate head coach at Rice University, where she helped the Owls to back-to-back Postseason WNIT appearances in 2006 and 2007.  Now, she hopes to help Evansville to consecutive post-season appearances this year in her first season as head coach, after the Purple Aces advanced to 2008 Postseason WNIT last winter.

“Preseason workouts have gone extremely well so far,” said Murphy.  “As a first-year staff, we were able to find out the individual strengths and weaknesses of each player, and once we were allowed to work with the entire group, we were able to put into place some of the fundamentals of our system and work on a lot of different things.

“From an energy standpoint and an intensity standpoint, I could not have hand-picked a better group to work with as a head coach.  The players have been outstanding in terms of their attitude and effort, and they have picked up our new system fairly quickly.

“We are obviously excited to get started, because with a first-year staff, we still have a lot to work on and there is really not much time between our first practice and our first game.  It will be nice though to be able to work with this group on a daily basis, and the expectations of the program, both from the coaches and the players, still remains very high.”

Murphy inherits an Evansville program which returns 10 players, including six of the team’s top eight scorers, from a squad which posted a 21-12 record a year ago, earned a share of the program’s first Missouri Valley Conference regular-season title, and advanced to the second round of the 2008 Postseason WNIT.  While Evansville will have to fill the void left by the graduation of do-everything guard Rebekah Parker and three-point specialist Courtney Felke this season, the Purple Aces do return three senior starters from last year’s squad, led by second-team all-MVC center Shannon Novosel.

Novosel emerged as one of the league’s top post players a year ago, ranking among the Valley’s best in scoring (10.7 ppg), rebounding (6.0 rpg), blocked shots (1.24 bpg) and steals (1.42 spg).  She stepped up to average 12.3 points per game in league play a season ago, and reached double-figures in points 20 different times.  Novosel provides Evansville with a steady force down low both offensively and defensively, as she enters the season not only ranked third all-time in school history in blocked shots, but also on pace to become just the 17th player in UE women’s basketball history to crack the 1,000-point barrier.

Also returning from Evansville’s 2008 starting lineup are senior guard Ashley Austin (9.1 ppg, 3.7 rpg) and senior forward Robyn Jennings (8.1 ppg, 5.8 rpg).  Austin earned MVC All-Defensive Team honors last year as a junior, after ranking third in the league with 61 steals.  She also emerged as a scoring threat along the perimeter last season, reaching double-figures in scoring 17 times while ranking second on the team in three-point field goals made with 24.

Jennings, meanwhile, is hoping to pick up right where she left off last season, as she averaged 10.7 points and 7.4 rebounds per game over UE’s final seven contests.  Jennings served as UE’s good luck charm a year ago, as the Purple Aces went 13-3 when she scored nine points or more in a game, and she has a chance to join UE’s 1,000-point club by the end of the year as well.

Junior guard Amy Gallagher (5.2 ppg, 2.2 rpg) and sophomore guard Ashlee Barrett (3.8 ppg, 1.8 rpg) are expected to help fill the void left by the graduation of Parker and Felke, while seniors Kate Batey (1.0 ppg, 0.2 rpg) and Ayako Nakane (02. ppg, 0.3 rpg) will vie for playing time as well in the UE backcourt. 

Gallagher was UE’s top scoring option off of the bench a year ago, while also ranking among the team’s leaders in steals.  Barrett, meanwhile, is hoping to build off of a strong finish to her freshman year at UE, as she averaged 7.6 points per game over Evansville’s final 10 games. 

Batey is a veteran of over 67 games at UE, and has provided Evansville with a good energy lift off of the bench over the last three years.  Nakane, meanwhile, is one of UE’s hardest workers and peskiest defenders along the perimeter.  They are expected to bring a veteran presence to the UE backcourt this year, which will also include talented true freshmen guards Jordan Lewis (Greenfield, Ind./Greenfield-Central) and Kelsey Sperka (New Berlin, Wis./New Berlin Eisenhower), both of whom had prolific high school scoring careers.

Along the UE frontline, junior Anaris Sickles (4.1 ppg, 2.8 rpg) will contend with sophomore Stephanie Bamberger (1.9 ppg, 0.9 rpg) and junior Hannah Singleton (0.5 ppg, 0.4 rpg) for playing time in the post.  Sickles is a talented offensive low-block player with a soft touch, as is evidenced by the fact that she ranks second all-time in school history in career free throw accuracy at 83.3 percent.  Bamberger, meanwhile, is a versatile forward who is tough enough to play inside, but talented enough to play along the perimeter, as she shot 51.6 percent from the floor and 57.1 percent from three-point range a year ago.  Singleton provides Evansville with a physical presence in the post, and will try to help mentor true freshmen forwards Eva Benson (Overton, Neb./Overton) and Chelsea Falkenstein (Evansville, Ind./Memorial), who bring good size and athleticism to the Evansville frontline.

Murphy and the Purple Aces will be tested early and often this winter, as UE will play nine games against teams which advanced on to post-season play in 2008, including NCAA Tournament Sweet 16 participant Notre Dame.  Overall, 11 of UE’s 29 games will be played against teams which won 20 games or more last season.

“Our non-conference schedule will certainly prepare us for the Valley schedule this year,” said Murphy.  “The strength of our non-conference schedule will give us a good measuring stick of where our team is at going into conference play, and where we will still need to improve.

“They always say that if you want to be the best, you have to play and beat the best.  Judging from the success our opponents had last year and the strength of our overall schedule, I think that we will have a strong possibility to make post-season play if we are successful against this schedule.”