Idaho women’s basketball starts regular season against another 2014 NCAA Tournament opponent
Idaho women’s basketball coach Jon Newlee doesn’t start the season with easy wins for his team. Instead, he schedules top-level opponents. Last season, the Vandals opened the regular season with No. 25 Gonzaga and this year the team starts with another NCAA Tournament caliber team, Cal State-Northridge.
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Sophomore guard Karlee Wilson drives past a practice player Tuesday in Memorial Gym. The Vandals open the season at 2 p.m. Friday at Cal State-Northridge.
“They are an extremely talented, quick, athletic team with a lot of experience,” Newlee said. “They have all five starters back from a team that went to the NCAA Tournament and played No. 1 South Carolina even throughout much of the game. They’re extremely well-coached.”
Newlee said he likes to schedule tough opponents to start the season because it will allow him to see where his team stands talent-wise right from the beginning.
The style of play CSUN brings is also similar to what the Vandals will face in the Big Sky Conference later in the season.
“It will be a rough, rough test to open up the season,” Newlee said. “We’re going to have to bring our intensity level down there. It’s their home floor, their home opener and all that brings. That brings a lot of emotional intensity to your home team so we’re going to have to match that intensity on both ends of the floor.”
Cal State-Northridge plays in the Big West Conference where they are picked to repeat as champions in 2014-15. The Matadors went 18-15 overall and 12-4 in conference play last season.
Going into the game, the Vandals will be without a key player this weekend as junior post Ali Forde stays home to play the final two matches of the regular season with the volleyball team. The Idaho volleyball team is still vying for the No. 2 seed in the Big Sky Tournament as it rounds out the season with Senior Night Saturday against Northern Colorado.
“She made our exhibition game because it happened to work out with the schedule, but we will not be able to have her for the trip down to southern California and that’s a big hole for us,” Newlee said of Forde. “Our other people … are going to have to step up because Ali gives a lot to our team.”
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Senior guard Stacey Barr said it will probably be a team effort to fill the void that Forde leaves in the middle.
“Definitely Geri (McCorkell) and Brooke (Reilly) and Maren (Austgulen) — pretty much all our bigs are going to have to step up,” she said. “Hopefully someone can come in and take Ali’s role. That would be great for us.”
The Vandals will stay in California over the weekend as they follow up the game against CSUN with a contest at UC Santa Barbara Monday.
“I think everyone is really excited for this first game,” Barr said. “Lots of energy just preparing for Northridge and excited for the trip to Cali.”
Stephan Wiebe can be reached at [email protected]