Nov. 6, 2014
Teams: Coker College (0-0) vs. RV/RV Vanderbilt (0-0)
Day, Date: Saturday, Nov. 8
Tip-off time: 12 p.m. (CT)
Site: Memorial Gym (Nashville, Tenn.)
Tickets: Tickets can be purchased by calling 615-322-GOLD, visiting the McGugin Center ticket office or logging on to vucommodores.com. Note: Fans who have tickets to the Vanderbilt-Florida football game will be admitted to the WBB game for free by showing their tickets at the gate.
Parking: Parking in the 25th Avenue parking garage will be available for free until noon on Saturday. Please see below for more details.
Radio: Saturday’s game will not be on the radio, but all regular-season games can be heard on 560 AM & 95.9 FM with Charlie Mattos on the call.
After months of anticipation, Vanderbilt fans will get their first look at the 2014-15 Commodores on Saturday when Vanderbilt hosts Coker College in an exhibition game at 12 p.m. The Commodores then open the regular season on Nov. 14 at home against Belmont. Here’s a look at few of the storylines surrounding Saturday’s exhibition game:
l Plenty of fresh faces. The Vanderbilt roster features five freshmen, all of whom are expected to make significant contributions this season. The group features Paris Kea (from Greensboro, N.C.), Christa Reed (Bay St. Louis, Miss.), along with local standout Rachel Bell (who played at Creek Wood) and twin sisters Audrey-Ann and Khalèann Caron-Goudreau (who are 6-3 post players from Canada). Three of the freshmen — Kea and the Caron-Goudreau twins — were members of gold-medal winning teams this summer, with Kea playing for the USA U18 squad and the Caron-Goudreau twins making the roster for the Canadian Senior B National Team.
l Dahlman earns SEC honor. Vanderbilt redshirt freshman Rebekah Dahlman was named to the preseason All-SEC Second Team on Wednesday morning as determined by the annual voting by the conference coaches. Dahlman was in the starting lineup for Vanderbilt’s first nine games last season before being sidelined with a blood clot in December and missing the rest of the season. She was leading the SEC and ranked 10th in the nation in 3-point percentage at 51.4 percent (18-of-35) at the time of her injury.
l Commodores garner preseason respect. Although Vanderbilt did not crack the preseason Top-25 rankings, the Commodores received votes in both the AP and USA Today polls. Inside the SEC, the Commodores are again projected for a strong showing, with the media predicting a fifth-place finish for Vanderbilt and the SEC coaches tabbing the Commodores for sixth place.
l Looking for new leaders. The graduation of Christina Foggie and Jasmine Lister — two of the most decorated players in the program’s history — means that the Commodores will need some new leaders to emerge. Foggie and Lister combined to score 1,015 points of Vanderbilt’s 2,218 total points last season, and they also combined for 133 of the team’s 166 three-pointers. Foggie ranks No. 7 on Vanderbilt’s career scoring list and is the program’s all-time leader in 3-pointers, and Lister graduated as the program’s all-time leader in minutes played, ranks No. 3 on Vanderbilt’s all-time assist list and No. 10 in scoring.
l Parking update Due to road closures and reserved parking lots for Saturday’s football game, fans attending the women’s basketball game are asked to park in the 25th Avenue parking garage, via the Highland Avenue entrance. Parking in the garage will be available for free until noon on Saturday. At that time, attendants will begin charging $10 to those who enter the garage. The cost of parking in the garage is the same for each home football game.
l What’s ahead. The Commodores open the regular-season with two straight home games, hosting Belmont (Nov. 14) and Green Bay (Nov. 17). Vanderbilt then makes its first road trip of the season on Nov. 20, when the Commodores travel to Wisconsin.
