LARAMIE, Wyo. (Nov. 1, 2017) -- The Wyoming women's basketball team will open up the 2017-18 exhibition season on Friday when it hosts the Chadron State Eagles. The game is set to begin at 5:30 p.m. MT in the Arena-Auditorium. Live stats, audio and video can be found on the GoWyo.com website. Friday also marks the Grand Re-Opening of the Double A.
Fans may purchase tickets through the Wyoming Athletics Ticket Office at 307-766-7220 or online at GoWyo.com.
Entering his 15
th year, Legerski welcomes back four starters and 12 letterwinners from a team that went 22-10 overall and 13-5 in MW play a season ago. The 20-plus wins marked the eighth time in Legerski's career that mark has been achieved and the 22 wins were seventh most all-time in school history. The 13 conference wins were the most conference wins in program history. Three individuals were selected for postseason honors. Junior
Liv Roberts was named to the All-Conference and All-Defensive Teams, sophomore
Marta Gomez was named the Sixth Player of the Year and newcomer
Taylor Rusk was selected to the All-Freshman Team.
The 2017-18 squad is comprised of four seniors, six juniors and four sophomores. Of those 12 returning letterwinners, ten of them played in 13 games or more in 2016-17 which included four juniors, four sophomores and two true freshmen.
Wyoming will look for its leadership in All-Conference performer Roberts along with senior
Natalie Baker and juniors
Bailee Cotton and
Clara Tapia. Roberts returns after averaging a team high 15.6 points and 7.8 boards followed by Baker with 9.7 points and 5.7 boards. Cotton played in all 32 contests and chipped in 5.9 and 4.8 rebounds while newcomer Tapia averaged a team-high 4.5 assists along with 6.2 points. Gomez and Rusk each added 8.8 points and 6.3 points respectively off the bench.
Other returning letterwinners include seniors
Marleah Campbell and
Skyler Snodgrass, juniors
Tijana Raca and
Rachelle Tucker plus sophomores
Selale Kepenc,
Coreen Labish.
Campbell played in 29 games and averaged 3.2 points and 1.8 rebounds while Snodgrass and Raca saw action in 13 and 10 games respectively. Tucker averaged 4.8 points and 2.7 boards in 19 contests. Kepenc played in 14 games during her freshman campaign while Labish sat out during the 2016-17 season.
The Cowgirls welcome two newcomers to the squad;
Elisa Pilli (5-7, G, Padova, Italy) who will sit out this season and
Sladjana Rakovic (6-0, F, Bijelo Polje, Montenegro).
Chadron State returns three starters and six letterwinners to a squad that went 7-18 overall and 7-15 in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference a year ago. The two teams have met 11 times during the regular season with Wyoming holding an 11-0 lead in the series. The last time the two teams met was Nov. 16, 2016 with the Cowgirls winning 74-50 in Laramie. The Eagles are coached by Janet Raymer who is in her second season with the program.
