Feb. 25, 2005

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GAME #24:
Harvard (15-7, 7-2 Ivy)
Friday, Feb. 25, 2005 - 7 p.m.
John J. Lee Amphitheater
New Haven, Conn.

GAME #25:
Dartmouth (13-8, 9-0 Ivy)
Saturday, Feb. 26, 2005 - 7 p.m.
John J. Lee Amphitheater
New Haven, Conn.

YALE ENDS HOME SEASON WITH CRIMSON, BIG GREEN
The Bulldogs return home for their final two 2004-05 contests in the friendly confines John J. Lee Amphitheater. Second-place Harvard visits New Haven on Friday night, followed by first-place Dartmouth for senior night on Saturday. The Crimson and Big Green will have to deal with a Yale team coming off its biggest win of the year, a 74-64 overtime victory Feb. 19 at Penn. Erica Davis racked up 23 points, 12 rebounds and four blocks in the win. The Elis dominated the final 10 minutes of play, running off 11 straight points to take a late lead in regulation and eight straight to start the extra session. Yale also got 17 points and seven rebounds from Morgan Richards and nine points and eight rebounds from Sarah Zoubek. Davis leads the team with 12.3 points and 6.9 rebounds per game, and Richards scores a team-best 11.2 points per Ivy game. In the Feb. 12 game at Harvard, Tory Mauseth broke the Yale record for career three-pointers. She has now hit 162 in her four years.

BACKUS TO RETIRE FROM COACHING, STAY AT YALE
Amy Backus, Yale's Joel E. Smilow, Class of 1954 Head Coach of Women's Basketball, is retiring from coaching after 25 years on the sidelines to accept a position as a varsity sports administrator with Yale Athletics. This weekend's contests will be her final home games at the helm of the Bulldogs. Backus has a 213-202 overall record and a 53-105 mark in almost six seasons at Yale.

SERIES HISTORIES
Harvard defeated Yale in Cambridge on Feb. 12 to extend its series lead to 32-26. The Crimson has won the last two meetings after the Bulldogs pulled off a 62-59 win last year at the Amphitheater. The Big Green holds a 41-14 lead in the series after winning in Hanover on Feb. 11.

SCOUTING THE CRIMSON
Harvard, the league's highest-scoring team at 70.6 points per game, has won its last three games and seven of its last eight to move into second place in the Ivy League, a half game ahead of Brown. Co-Ivy Player of the Week Reka Cserny averaged 24 points on 75 percent shooting last weekend. She leads the league with 20.5 points per game (more than five points ahead of second place) and a .508 field goal percentage. She ranks third in the conference with 8.2 rebounds per game. Jessica Holsey leads the league with 4.49 assists per game, and Katie Murphy ranks second with an assist-to-turnover ratio of 1.63.

SCOUTING THE BIG GREEN
Dartmouth center Elise Morrison shared Player of the Week honors with Harvard's Cserny after scoring 21 points in wins against Cornell and Columbia to extend the Big Green's winning streak to eight games. Morrison leads the team and ranks fourth in the Ivy League with 14.6 points and 8.1 rebounds per game. Jeannie Cullen averages 14.1 points to rank fifth in the conference. Ashley Taylor (23-for-49, .469) and Angie Soriaga (39-90, .433) are the league's most accurate three-point shooters, and Soriaga leads the league with a 1.89 assist-to-turnover ratio. Dartmouth ranks second in the Ivy League in scoring (65.6 points per game).

LATE DOMINANCE CARRIES YALE TO OT WIN AT PALESTRA
The Bulldogs used an 11-0 run late in the second half to take the lead and an 8-0 spurt to start overtime in a 74-64 win against Penn at the historic Palesta on Feb. 19. Behind 23 points, 12 rebounds and four blocks from Erica Davis, Yale dominated the inside. Her backup, Sarah Zoubek, who was playing in front of family and friends from nearby Haddonfield, N.J., had nine points and eight rebounds in just 14 minutes as the Bulldogs outscored the Quakers 40-20 in the paint. Morgan Richards added 17 points and seven rebounds for the Elis. Tory Mauseth notched 16 points and six rebounds as the Bulldogs fell Friday at Princeton 75-49.

BLOCK PARTY
Yale, which set a school record with 105 blocked shots last season, leads the Ivy League and ranks 46th in Division I with 4.30 blocks per game in 2004-05. Erica Davis, Yale's all-time leading shot-blocker, leads the league and ranks 31st nationally with 2.26 blocks per game (52 total). She broke the school record with the 78th block of her career Feb. 4 against Columbia, then broke her own Yale record with her 41st block of the season the next night against Cornell. Davis has matched the school record with five blocks in a game twice this season, at New Hampshire on Dec. 8 and Jan. 12 against Delaware State. Classmate Julie Mantilla is the only other Bulldog, past or present, to block five shots in a game twice. She did it against Penn last season and in this season's Quinnipiac game, when Yale blocked 11 as a team. She ranks fifth in the league with 1.17 blocks per game (27 total). Last season, Davis (40) and Mantilla (32) both surpassed the old individual record of 29 blocks by Meg Simpson in 2001-02. The Elis have outblocked their opponents 99-42 and are on pace to break last year's mark.

CLEANING THE GLASS
The Bulldogs rank second in the Ivy League in rebounding (38.7 per game), offensive rebounding (12.87) and defensive rebounding (25.87). Erica Davis ranks sixth in the conference with 6.9 rpg and 4.57 defensive rpg. Chinenye Okafor averages 2.35 offensive rpg to rank sixth, one spot ahead of Davis (2.30).

Amy Backus, JOEL E. SMILOW, CLASS OF 1954 COACH OF WOMEN'S BASKETBALL
Amy Backus is in her sixth and final season as head coach of the Bulldogs. She has a record of 53-105 at Yale, while her overall record is 213-202 (Middlebury and Otterbein). Her record at Middlebury, where her team won the ECAC New England Division III Championship in 1993, was 106-41. Prior to Yale, Backus was an assistant under Don Perrelli at Northwestern of the Big Ten Conference from 1995-99 and earned an NCAA Tournament bid in 1997.

MAUSETH: THE SHARP SHOOTER
Senior Tory Mauseth made three three-pointers at Harvard to break Autumn Braddock's Yale career record of 157 (1995-1999). In the Jan. 15 game against Brown, she broke Braddock's mark of 406 career three-point tries. She is 39-for-131 (.298) from three-point land in 2004-05, including a season-best 6-for-8 showing against Alabama, and is 162-for-463 (.350) in her career. Mauseth ranks third on the team and 20th in the league with 9.2 ppg. She is second on the squad with 48 assists and shoots a team-best 81.8 percent (45-for-55) on free throws. She tied the school record for threes made in a game with seven in a win against Cornell on the final weekend of 2003-04.

DAVIS IN THE PAINT
Yale's top scorer and rebounder with 12.3 ppg (seventh in the Ivy League) and 6.7 rpg (sixth), Erica Davis is Yale's career record-holder in blocked shots. She leads the conference and ranks 31st nationally with 2.26 blocks per game (52 total, school record). She tied a school record with five swats twice, at New Hampshire and against Delaware State, broke the previous career record of 77 in the Feb. 4 game against Columbia and eclipsed her own season mark of 40 in the Feb. 5 Cornell game. She also ranks among the league leaders with a .435 field-goal percentage (seventh) and 1.48 steals per game (tied for 13th). Davis racked up 23 points, 12 rebounds and four blocks in Yale's overtime win at Princeton, her third double double of the season. Last season, Davis received All-Ivy honorable mention and was named to the Ivy All-Rookie Team and set the school single-game scoring record with 36 points against Lafayette.

CAPTAIN RICHARDS
Morgan Richards, elected captain by her teammates, has picked up her play in recent weeks. The senior ranks second on the team with 9.3 ppg. In Ivy League games, she leads the team with 11.2 ppg and 5.1 rpg. She led all players with 18 points and eight rebounds Jan. 22 at Brown and scored 21 in Yale's win against Lafayette. She tallied 17 points and seven rebounds in Yale's overtime win at Penn. Richards is 25-for-72 (.347, eighth in Ivy League) from three-point range. She is 34-for-44 (.773) from the free throw line. The Seattle native leads the team with 58 assists (2.52 per game, 11th) and is tied for second with 29 steals. She leads the Bulldogs with 29.7 minutes per game, averages 3.9 rpg and shoots 38.7 percent from the floor.

BULLDOGS TOUR WHITE HOUSE, MEET CHENEY
Before their Jan. 12 game at George Washington, the Bulldogs took some time to meet another Yalie. The team posed for a photo with Vice President Dick Cheney '63 before touring the White House. Team captain Morgan Richards presented Cheney with a pair of putters and Y sweaters for him and President George W. Bush '68.

YALE ON YES
Yale's Jan. 28 home game against Penn kicked off the YES Network's 2005 Ivy League basketball coverage. The game was announced by New York Yankees broadcaster John Sterling and Duke men's basketball great Bobby Hurley, with sideline reporting by Chris Shearn.

YALE PICKED TO JUMP ONE SPOT
In their preseason poll, media from around the Ivy League picked the Bulldogs to finish fifth in the conference. Yale received 62 points in the poll. Dartmouth was picked to win the league crown with 114 points and nine of the 16 available first-place votes. Harvard (107 points), Penn (99) and Brown (91) also received votes to win the title. The Elis (62) were picked to finish one spot better than their sixth-place finish last year. Columbia (41), Princeton (35) and Cornell (27) rounded out the poll. Penn won the 2003-04 championship with an 11-3 record.

SEATTLE SLEW
Yale has players hailing from all over the country, but no other state has provided as many current Bulldogs as Washington. Seniors Tory Mauseth (Sammamish), Lindsay Page (Mukilteo), Morgan Richards (Seattle) and sophomore Eleanor Miller (Seattle) all hail from the Evergreen State. The group had a homecoming on Thanksgiving weekend of 2003, as Yale traveled to Seattle to play in the Seattle Times Classic, hosted by the University of Washington. Yale also has three players from New Jersey and a pair from California.

YALE LAUNCHES W.I.S.E.R. FUND
The Yale University Athletic Department, in partnership with nine women varsity athletes who pioneered women's sports at Yale in the 1970s and 1980s, announced on Jan. 28 a new fund dedicated to women's varsity athletics at Yale. A reception to formally launch the campaignwas held in the Kiphuth Trophy Room in Payne Whitney Gym. The fund, named W.I.S.E.R. (Women's Intercollegiate Sports Endowment and Resource), has already raised nearly $500,000 toward a $1 million year-end goal. W.I.S.E.R. is the first general athletic endowment established by former Yale athletes. Its co-founders include former Yale basketball players Lisa Brummel '81, Anne Keating '77, Susie Krentz '80 and Karen Yarasavage '87.

WELCOME TO NEW HAVEN
Yale welcomes a talented group of five freshmen to its 2004-05 roster. The twin towers of Sarah Zoubek and Sara McCollum add to Yale's already formidable front line. Both were McDonald's All-American nominees, and Zoubek received All-America honorable mention from Street & Smith's. Stephanie Marciano will be called upon to take over at the point. She made the all-state third team and led John P. Stevens High School to a sectional title in 2003-04. Alexandra Chen, who played alongside Hakeem Olajuwon's daughter in high school and whose father played for the Chinese national team, joins the squad as a power forward after captaining the Marlborough School to its fourth straight league title in 2003-04. Jessica Kimball walked on to the team and will provide athleticism and depth on the wing.