USD Magazine Summer 2007

TORERO ATHLET I CS

TEAM PLAYERS The resounding success of women’s basketbal l by Tom Shanahan [ r e s o l v e ]

ERIC DROTTER

W hen USD point guard Amanda Rego, then a sophomore, heard the final buzzer on the court in Spokane, Wash., last year, she felt a sense of panic. “I realized my career was half over,” Rego recalls. “I was think-

“She went to the weight room to get stronger. She worked on her shot. She improved her game all the way around. She was a lead- er, getting the girls together in the summer to play.” That determination paid off. The Toreros reversed fortunes in

2005-06 season — to get to the resounding success that the University of San Diego women’s basketball team experienced this winter. Part of that turnaround was Rego’s decision that her old ways of preparation during the off-

WCC standings with a 10-4 mark. The Toreros again missed out on the NCAA tournament, but this time there was a post-season appearance in the Women’s National Invitation Tournament. Rego also broke ground for USD when she was named the WCC Co-Player of the Year, shar- ing the honor with Stephanie Hawk of WCC champion Gonza- ga. It marked the first time a USD woman’s basketball player has won even a share of the credit. “That kind of honor means everything to the program,” Fisher said. “Amanda exemplifies everything we expect from our players. She comes to work every day to get better. She wanted to prove a lot this year, and she got it done.” But Rego, who led the nation in assists with 7.6 per game, wasn’t alone on the court for the Toreros. She was joined on the 10-member All-WCC first team by Amber Sprague, a 6-foot-5 soph- omore center/forward; Morgan Henderson, who was named to the All-Freshman team; and Fisher, who was voted Co-Coach of the Year along with Gonzaga’s Kelly Graves. “In terms of personal goals, I wasn’t thinking about Player of the Year,” Rego says. “I wanted to be a leader and I wanted a good assist-to-turnover ratio. I wanted to do whatever our team needed me to do to win.” But despite the gains made during Rego’s junior season, the Toreros suffered another first- round loss in the WCC tourna- ment when they were upset by

ERIC DROTTER

GE T T I NG PSYCHED

in the pre -game huddle is par t of building a championship program. Although

the Toreros ultimately lost at home, their post-season experience may pay off next ye a r.

their second season under Fisher with a 21-9 mark, and the 12- victory improvement was the biggest turnaround in program history. The team broke the school record for wins in a sea- son (17), while finishing as the runner-up in the regular-season

ing, ‘I’ve only got two years to go. I can’t keep losing. It’s time to kick it into gear.’” Apparently, it took that bleak moment — a first-round loss in the West Coast Conference tour- nament after the Toreros took only nine of 28 games during the

season didn’t work. Not for her- self, and not for a team that wants to compete for a WCC title and NCAA tournament berths. “Since the day we lost in the WCC first round (in 2006), she went to work, and it’s paid off,” USD coach Cindy Fisher says.

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