FAMILIAR FACES TO TAKE THE FLOOR AS WOMEN’S BASKETBALL STARTS PRACTICE FRIDAY 10/15/2009 SACRAMENTO, Calif. - The Sacramento State women’s basketball team opens practice Friday with 11 returning letterwinners and one redshirt from a 2008-09 campaign that saw the squad post a school-best seven conference victories. Only two things are substantially different from a season ago – the losses of senior Atty Boyer (11.0 ppg, 6.5 rpg) and head coach Dan Muscatell, who left the program in April to return to his coaching roots as the top assistant at Oregon. But first year head coach Jamie Craighead is no stranger to the program, having been brought in as the team’s top assistant for the 2007-08 campaign, and serving as associate head coach a season ago. At age 29, Craighead will spend this season as the youngest head coach in Division I women’s basketball, but with seven years of coaching experience under her belt, she’s ready to continue the rise of the program. “This program has been slowly taking shape over the last few years, having some success on the court and changing the basketball culture,” Craighead said. “The new challenge we are faced with is, while we have the experience and talent to be a very good team, we must continue to raise the bar in our daily training in order to accomplish things that this program has not experienced since joining the Big Sky Conference.” Helping the transition will be the return of four starters from last year’s team, whose fifth place finish in the Big Sky Conference was the best mark in program history. Senior forward Charday Hunt (Portland, Ore.) is the top returner, after earning second team all-Big Sky honors a season ago. She averaged a team-high 14.3 points and 4.9 rebounds per game, and increased her averages to 15.2 points and 5.1 rebounds per game in conference play. Hunt ranked third in the conference in scoring, while also ranking in the top 10 in free-throw shooting (3rd, 82.4 percent), three-point shooting (5th, 38.1 percent), and three-pointers made (8th, 1.5 per game). Senior forward Erika Edwards (Redmond, Wash.) also returns following a junior season that saw her lead the Big Sky with 13 double-digit rebounding performances. Edwards, who became the eighth player to enter the school’s 500 rebound club, battled through injuries to average 9.0 points and 8.1 rebounds per game. She increased her output in conference play, averaging 11.1 points and 8.2 rebounds. Junior Emily Christensen (El Dorado Hills, Calif.), another front court returner, is the Hornets’ third leading returning scorer from last season. She averaged 8.6 points while adding 4.1 rebounds per contest, despite coming off the bench in all 19 contests she appeared in and averaging just 18.8 minutes per game. She also missed the first 11 games last season due to offseason knee surgery, but returns fully healed for the start of fall camp In the backcourt the Hornets return both starters from last season, and a total of four players with starting experience. Junior Sami Field-Polisso (Mountain View, Calif.) has started all 58 games Sacramento State has competed in since she arrived on campus two seasons ago, and made the transition from point guard to shooting guard midway through last season. She averaged 5.6 points and 2.8 assists per game, and ranked in the top ten in the Big Sky in three-pointers made (7th, 1.6 per game), assists (9th), and minutes played (10th, 32.7 mpg) Senior Ashley Garcia (Antioch, Calif.) started the final 15 contests last season at point guard, leading the Hornets to seven of the team’s nine wins while averaging 1.5 points and 1.3 assists per game. Junior Jasmine Cannady (Sacramento, Calif.) has started 31 games in her career, with six coming a season ago. She averaged 5.3 points and 2.1 rebounds per game, and scored a career-high 16 points at Northern Arizona last season. Junior Tika Koshiyama-Diaz (San Jose, Calif.) has made nine career starts, including eight last season when she averaged 4.5 points, 1.9 assists and 1.7 rebounds a game, while also blocking six shots. Sophomore guard Nneka Payne (Auburn, Wash.) will also vie for time in the backcourt after appearing in 28 games, while making a lone start at Eastern Washington a season ago. Payne averaged 4.0 points per game while connecting on 22-of-52 three-pointers, good for a 42.3 percent mark, which set the school record for single-season percentage. Sophomore centers Karri Gallagher (Lake Stevens, Wash.) and Kristine Jurgens-Duenas (Tracy, Calif.) also return for their second campaigns in the Green and Gold. Gallagher averaged 1.9 points and 2.9 rebounds per game, seeing time in 27 of the Hornets 30 contests. Jurgens-Duenas saw time in six contests during her first season. Sophomore Alex White (Folsom, Calif.) who saw action in 10 matchups and averaged 1.9 rebounds per game at forward last season, will return to her more natural guard position during her second season. “Our returning players have been together through all the growing pains a team trying to climb and fight their way to the top goes through,” Craighead said. “This group works hard and I have high expectations for them. I’ve challenged our upperclassmen to leave this program in better shape then they found it. We are headed in the right direction.” Three freshmen enter the program for the 2009-10 season, comprised of forwards Kylie Kuhns and Natasha Torgerson and guard/forward Mallorie Franco. Each will look to make an immediate impact at their respective positions. Kuhns (Salem, Ore.) was an honorable mention all-Oregon performer as a senior after averaging a double-double (13.7 ppg, 14.2 rpg) for Sprague HS. She broke the Oregon state record in 2007 with a 34 rebound performance against Rex Putnam HS. Torgerson (Grants Pass, Ore.) also earned honorable mention all-Oregon accolades after averaging 12.1 points and 6.3 rebounds per game at Grants Pass HS. Standing 6-foot-3, Torgerson is an accomplished shooter who has range well beyond the three-point arc. Franco (Fortuna, Calif.) was named area Defensive MVP by the Eureka Times-Standard as a senior, and was a two-time first team all-Humboldt Del Norte conference honoree at Fortuna Union HS.  She  was a four-sport all-conference honoree during her four years, earning honorable mention honors in volleyball as a sophomore and soccer as a senior, while winning eight league titles in track and field. “Our new faces have had an impact and contributed from the first day they arrived on campus,” Craighead said. “They all bring unique skills to our team that we will count on over the course of the season. This group continues to get better everyday.” The Hornet non-conference schedule includes four home games which are sandwiched on either end of a seven game road trip. The Hornets start the season hosting Cal State Fullerton (11/15) and UNLV (11/21) before heading to the Pacific Northwest to play four contests. After a matchup at Portland (11/22), the Hornets will bus north to Seattle to take on Seattle University (11/25) before taking on Memphis (11/27) and Washington (11/29) as part of the Husky Classic. The road swing continues on Dec. 2 as Sacramento State plays a rare midweek noon game against Nevada. The final two stops on the preseason road schedule are at Fresno State (12/8) and rival UC Davis (12/13). Sacramento State then returns home to take on San Jose State (12/18) and Division II Academy of Art (12/21) before the holiday break. The Hornets play two more non-conference games inside of Big Sky play, travelling to San Francisco (1/5) and hosting Pacific (2/13). The Hornets open practice on Friday, Oct. 16 at 5 p.m., with their exhibition contest taking place on Tuesday, Nov. 10 against Dominican.