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Last week U-Mary opened the 2012-13 season at the Pittsburg State Tip-off Classic with a win over Missouri Southern. The Marauders were led by the outstanding play of senior Shaunna Knife. Knife had a game high 24 points to go with 11 rebounds. A 10-0 run by U-Mary gave them the lead early and they never looked back. The Marauders were able to hold their opponent to just 9 of 35 shooting in the first half. Hot shooting (11-23 3pt) and pressure defense (10 steals) allowed the Marauders to lead by as many as 24 on their way to a 78-61 victory. Knife scored 15 of U-Mary's 41 second half points. Ali Collins and Laura Petersen scored 16 and 15 points respectively.
 
A slow start against host school #3 Pittsburg State doomed the Marauders in their final game of the weekend. The Marauders slow offensive start left them down 16-6 midway through the first period. PSU capitalized on U-Mary's 16 first half turnovers by extending their lead to as much as 20. U-Mary was able to close the gap to eight at half, but a 9-0 run by Pitt State to start the second ended the Marauders comeback chances. Redshirt freshman Brittney Dietz had 16 points to go with seven rebounds, all of them offensive. Collins was able to finish with 16 points on 9 of 11 shooting from the stripe.
 
This week the Marauders will travel to California to take on a pair on non-conference opponents. On Saturday U-Mary will take on Sonoma State University. They will then wrap up with California Maritime Academy on Monday.
 
NSIC: With the release of the 2012 NSIC Women's Basketball Coaches Poll, U-Mary was voted fifth with 171 points. Augustana College (S.D.), with 225 points, was picked to win the Northern Sun with 15 out of 16 first place votes. The Marauders, who finished third in the NSIC last year, were the only other team to receive a first place vote. In the North Division, the Marauders were voted second with 41 points. Minnesota Duluth edged U-Mary with 46 points. This is the first season of divisional play in the NSIC. Last season the Marauders finished first among the teams that make up the North Division this year. With the release of the pre-season poll, the Northern Sun also announced their players to watch. Ali Collins was named a Northern Sun Player to Watch.
 
ESPN: The University of Mary women's basketball team received four votes in the USA TODAY Sports/ESPN COACHES' POLL. Ashland University (Ohio), who finished last season ranked number two, was voted the top team in Division II. Wayne State was voted 16th in the coaches poll. Wayne finished last season with a 32-3 record and was fourth in the final poll. WSC is the top rated Northern Sun team in the preseason poll.  Augustana College also found themselves ranked in the top 25. Augustana, who finished 24-7 overall last year, was voted 18th by the coaches. Minnesota Duluth and Concordia St. Paul were the only two other NSIC schools to receive votes.
 
DOUBLE-DIPPING: After finishing last season with just one double-double, Shaunna Knife has already surpassed that mark by recording a double-double in each of the Marauders first two games. The last player to accomplish this feat was Linda Murray who did it in three consecutive games last season against St. Cloud, Northern State and Winona State. Knife's two double-doubles mark the seventh and eight of her career. The 5-11 senior will look to match Murray's mark of three consecutive as the Marauders take on Sonoma State.
 
Downtown: In U-Mary's first game, led by Shaunna Knife's 5-7 shooting, they shot an impressive 11-23 from three point land. Through two games this season the Marauders are actually shooting a higher percentage from beyond the arc (38) then they are from the field (36).
 
Stepping up: Going into the season the Marauders were hoping that a year of practice experience would allow redshirt freshman Brittney Dietz to successfully step into U-Mary's rotation. So far the 5-11 forward is averaging 12.5 points and 5.0 rebounds per game. Against Pittburg State Dietz scored 16 points to go with seven offensive rebounds.
 
The Future: On the first day of the early singing period Taylor Henningsgard, Anna Schmelzer, Danielle Williams, and Sheyenne Williams committed to continue their education at U-Mary and compete for the Marauders beginning with the 2013-14 season.

Projected U-Mary starters 

No.  Name    

22 Ali Collins

23 Shaunna Knife  

24 McKenzie Foster

30 Laura Petersen

40 Kaitlyn Haag

Key reserves

No.  Name             
12 Taylor Luke     

13 Lindsey Sand

32 Kelsey Peltier

35 Shanara Clark
42 Brittney Dietz

 
Sonoma State finished last season with an 11-16 record overall with a 9-13 record on the California Collegiate Athletic Association. Sonoma returns seven of their ten rotation players from last year including three starters. Already a two year starter, guard Taylor Vigil is the Seawolves most experienced player. Vigil averaged 5.2 points and 3.8 rebounds per game last season. In two exhibition games Sonoma is 1-1 and has yet to play an official game.
 
California Maritime Academy competes at the Division II NAIA level as a member of the California Pacific Conference. Maritime is 0-3 so far this season after dropping all of their games in the Southern Oregon Classic. Javier Brantley, a junior forward, appears to be one of the Keelhaulers top players as she scored 17 points against host school Southern Oregon.
 
Head to Head: California Maritime and Sonoma State faced off in an exhibition game this season with Sonoma State winning 83-37.
 
Following the Marauders this weekend: Live video and live statistics will be available for the Sonoma State game at goumary.com. Any updates available for the California Maritime game will be posted on the Marauders' Twitter page @umarysports.
 
Next week: U-Mary will open up their home season against Valley City State University (11/27). Rounding out the week the Marauders will host in-state rival Minot State  (12/1) to tip-off Northern Sun action. The Minot game will be played at the Civic Center.

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