USD Women's Basketball 2002-2003

The 2002-03 Tareras

2

2002-03Season PtBUiBW Toreros Armed with Experience and Talented Young Players With tour starters returning from last winter's team, San Diego has their sights set high in 2002-03. The Toreros put together a string of seven consecutive victories in non-conference play last year, starting the season 10-4. USO will try and duplicate that start when this season begins on November 23rd in Long Beach . Veteran Head Coach Kathy Marpe has brought in four talented young players to complement an experienced line-up that has depth both on the perimeter and in the paint.

The senior duo of guard Kerri Nakamoto and forward Erin Malich will lead the Toreros offensively, with both players returning off excellent junior seasons . Nakamoto, a native of San Jose, California buried a San Diego record 64 three-pointers last year and finished fifth in the nation in three-point accu– racy. Malich, an athletic post player with the ability to shoot the jump shot, poured in a team-high 14.7 points per game as a junior, and ranked among the league leaders in blocked shots. Anchoring the Torero line-up will be center Marta Menuez. The junior from Bodega, California averaged 11 .7 points a game as a sophomore and proved to be one of the best offensive rebounders in the conference. Clearing a team– high 84 offensive boards last year, Menuez provides USO with formidable size in the front court to complement athletic and active players such as Malich and junior Melissa Padgett.

The departure of record-setting floor leader Melissa Glazebrook to graduation

leaves a void at the point guard posi- tion. Redshirt freshman Polly Dong and newcomer Tiara Harris are both ex–

Kerri Nakamoto is USD's all-time career leader in 3-point shooting

pected to see time at point. Before falling to injury before the start of last season , Dong earned Foothill League MVP honors as a senior at Placer High School in Auburn , California. Harris is an athletic 5'1 O" product of Colo– rado Springs, Colorado, who was a First-Team All-State player as a prep senior at Pine Creek High School. The Torero program will experience a change in leadership off the floor as well this season. Fifth-year top assistant Erik Johnson has assumed the role of Associate Head Coach. Johnson will now run the Torero practices and make the personnel substitutions during games. The San Diego Surf and Slam Tournament, slated for December 28th and 30th , will once again highlight USD's non-conference home schedule. Over the past two seasons, the Jenny Craig Pavilion has played host to the holiday tournament that has brought in some of the nation's best college programs . A pair of NCAA Tournament qualifiers from last sea– son , Penn State and Kent State , along with Nebraska are slated to play in the tour team tourney in 2002 .

USO opens their home schedule on Tuesday, November 26th when they play the University of Denver at 7:00 PM.

Senior Erin Malich led USO in

scoring last season with 14.7 ppg

www.usdtoreros.com