Nov. 5, 2008
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — With just over a week until the 2008-09 season begins in earnest, national pollsters have weighed in with their preseason predictions. And in both the Associated Press and ESPN/USA Today Coaches’ Polls, the Vanderbilt women’s basketball has been ranked No. 12 in the country.
Head Coach Melanie Balcomb’s seventh Commodore squad returns all five starters from a 25-9 team that advanced to the 2008 NCAA Sweet 16 and won a school-record 11 Southeastern Conference games. In the ESPN/USA Today Coaches’ Poll, the SEC garnered five ranked teams to match the Big East, the Big 12 and the Atlantic Coast Conference.
The SEC also released its preseason coaches’ poll and all-conference squad on Wednesday. League coaches agreed with a media poll released last week, selecting Vanderbilt as the favorite to win the 2009 SEC championship. Tennessee, Auburn, Georgia, LSU and Florida rounded out the top half of the league.
Commodore senior Christina Wirth joined Auburn’s DeWanna Bonner as the only two unanimous selections to the All-SEC first team. Wirth averaged 13.1 points per game last season while leading the SEC in three-point field goal percentage.
Fellow VU captain Jennifer Risper was a second-team All-SEC selection. Risper was a member of the league’s all-defensive team last year after leading the Commodores in rebounding and steals.
Vanderbilt plays its second and final exhibition game this Friday, Nov. 7, when Love and Basketball visits Memorial Gymnasium for a 7 p.m. tip. The regular season begins on Friday, Nov. 14, as the Commodores play host to Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.