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WOMEN’S BASKETBALL SELECTED FOURTH IN THE SEC 10-29-03 10/29/2003 BENNINGFIELD CHOSEN TO PRESEASON ALL-SEC FIRST TEAM Today at the Southeastern Conference’s annual Media Day in Birmingham, Ala., the Vanderbilt Commodores women’s basketball squad garnered one first-place vote and 186 points in being selected fourth overall in the league by the attending media. VU senior forward Jenni Benningfield picked up All-SEC first team accolades and rated third behind Louisiana State’s Seimone Augustus and Mississippi State’s Tan White for Preseason SEC Player of the Year. Vanderbilt, fresh off a 22-10 mark and a NCAA Tournament appearance under Head Coach Melanie Balcomb, trailed only defending league champion Tennessee (266 points/14 first-place votes), LSU (247 points/six first-placevotes) and Georgia (236 points/three first-place votes) for top league honors. Auburn, Mississippi State and Arkansas gathered spots five through seven, while Florida, South Carolina, Kentucky, Alabama and Ole Miss rounded out the listing in that order. Benningfield, a senior from Louisville, Ky., begins this season much where she left off last year, with All-SEC honors after receiving 13 votes to join MSU’s White, LSU’s Augustus, Shyra Ely from Tennessee and Vanessa Hayden from Florida on the preseason first-team list. The 6’3″ forward, fresh off a campaign in which she finished fourth in the SEC in field-goal percentage (55.6%), fifth in scoring (16.5 ppg) and sixth in rebounding (7.9 rpg), became the 23rd VU women’s player to reach the 1,000-point plateau in her career with a career-high 29 tallies in a 74-70 SEC Tournament triumph over Georgia on March, 7, 2003. Over the past summer, the preseason Wade Trophy nominee served as a captain and posted 9.1 ppg and 3.9 rpg, while helping lead the U.S. Pan Am Games’ women’s basketball team to a silver medal. Vanderbilt’s 2003-04 season gets underway Tuesday, Nov. 11th, in Nashville with an exhibition matchup against the Mike White All-Stars at 7:00 p.m., before welcoming Athletes in Action on Monday, Nov. 17th at 7:00 p.m., in the final preseason tuneup. The Black and Gold open their official campaign at the Banknorth Classic in Burlington Vt., on Nov. 21-22. |
