BIG win last night

When I say we had a big win last night, I mean we really put up some big numbers...One hundred and one points and 61 rebounds to be exact! That marked the first time since 1997 that a Radford team broke the 100 point mark and the first time in 30 years that the Lady Highs have beaten a team by more than 60 points. Last night was a fun game to watch from the bench. It's always fun when most everything is going your way and every person on the team contributes. It should also be fun the next time we watch game film. After games like that one, we can always find things to joke about! Next up for RU Women's Basketball is a trip to New York to play in a tournament hosted by Cornell University. We play Duquesne in the first game on Friday night then hopefully will compete for the tournament championship on Saturday night at 5. After that trip we head to Nashville, TN on Monday to play Belmont University. Lots of traveling ahead for the Lady Highlanders...get some extra sleep for all of us!
Until next time...
JRA

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving to all of you! I hope that by now you have all had a great meal (or two), great desserts, and plenty of quality time with your families. I have been quite a slacker keeping up with this journal for the past week possibly because I feel like I've done nothing but travel. I guess it's that time of year right? Last Wednesday, we lost a tough one to VCU at home. We had chances to win but in the end came up 3 points short to a very, very talented VCU team. Thursday morning we got on the bus at 4am headed to the airport to travel to Evansville, IN. We played the Univ. of Evansville on Friday morning...yes, MORNING. It was an 11am game and they filled the gym up with around 1300 screaming school kids. Loud doesn't even begin to describe that atmosphere. If you've seen the website by now, you know that we lost another close game by 9 points. Maybe that's why I've been so slow to write this...I hate to lose...and I think I hate to write about it even more. Anyway, we all got to go home yesterday afternoon for Thanksgiving and the girls who weren't going home are having Thanksgiving at Coach Porter's house. As long as Coach doesn't try to cook, I'm sure that will be a great meal and fun times! I'm going to get back to hanging out with my parents and little brother now...gotta head back to Radford tomorrow morning for practice so my time at home is short. Happy Thanksgiving again and we hope to see you at the Dedmon Center Monday night when we plan to get back on the winning track!

These pictures were taken at the mall in Evansville. The girls had a good time acting like little kids on their carousel ride. I think the ride was cut short because Kelli changed horses while the ride was in motion. I'm sure the rest of the food court got a kick out of watching this!

Watch our game tonight Live Online!

Big game tonight for the Lady Highs. Virginia Commonwealth University comes into the Dedmon Center tonight for our first home game of the 2006-2007 season. We had a good practice last night after a not so good practice on Monday night. It seemed like our girls got their focus back yesterday and are ready to play tonight in front of the home crowd. This is a big game for us. We think VCU might be even better than the Virginia Tech team we beat last week after watching them on tape. This is a team that beat us by 2 last year at their gym so we feel confident that it will be a great game between two veteran teams tonight. If you haven't heard yet, our game tonight will be on a live video stream on the internet. You can go to www.ruhighlanders.com and click on "watch live" to see our game.

Congrats to Sarah Stephens who was named Big South Player of the Week for her performance last week. That is a great accomplishment for Sarah to be recognized by people in the conference in that way. We hope Sarah continues to lead our team by playing hard every minute she is on the floor. Well, we've got a busy schedule this afternoon so I need to cut this short. We're headed over to the student center to pass our flyers about tonight's game then back to the gym for shoot around followed by our pregame meal. Game time tonight is at 7:00pm. Get your game face on!

67 - 60

BIG TIME win last night for RU Women's Basketball! It was cool to walk into Joe's Diner for breakfast this morning and see the headline "RU upsets the Hokies" on the front of the sports page of the Roanoke Times. I am so proud of our team. "We can...because WE think we can." That's what Coach Porter told the girls in our pregame talk last night. We can beat an ACC team because the people in the cirlcle in the locker room believe that we are capable of doing so...TOGETHER. Our girls got it done together. When most people in Cassell Coliseum doubted us, our girls came through and delivered a performance that showed a 67 - 60 score when the final buzzer sounded last night. Senior captain Sarah Stephens stepped up huge for us and had 22 points off the bench while fellow captain Corrie Fertitta hit 4 free throws in the final minute to seal the win for us. That's what upperclassman leaders are supposed to give a team. They came up big in a big game. It was a tremendous team effort with us playing 10 kids and having 9 put points on the board. We couldn't have done it without everyone stepping up. Thanks so much for the people who came out and supported us last night. The best thing I heard all night was the chanting of "RU, RU, RU" as the clock ticked down at the end of the game. We all appreciate that.
If you can believe it, we've got an even bigger game on Wednesday night at home. We play a VCU team who beat us by 2 on the road last year and who also returns all of their players from a year ago. Yes, we're gonna enjoy this Virginia Tech win for today, but tomorrow we start to focus on our home opener and hope to pull out another victory! We hope to see you there.
JRA

P.S. The picture of the scoreboard was taken by my little brother, Dave. I think he gets the award for driving the farthest to watch our game. Did anyone else drive more than 9 hours??

we win!

Yes it was only an exhibition game and it doesn't officially count towards our season record, but the Lady Highs came away with a win last night over Lenoir-Rhyne College. I want to give alot of credit to Lenoir-Rhyne. We are proud to have beaten an excellent team that played very hard for 40 minutes. After watching the game last night and again today on tape, I am very excited about what the 06-07 season holds for Radford Women's Basketball. We did so many things well and only have a few minor adjustments to make and a few mistakes to correct before we get started for real on Friday night. A few people who stood out last night were: Davida Dodson had 17 points on 4 of 6 from the 3 point line in the first game of her collegiate career. Kelli Darden had a double double with 13 points and 11 rebounds and 4 blocked shots. Johnette Walker starts her sophomore campaign with a solid outing having 10 points, 5 rebounds, 4 steals, 3 assists, and only 2 turnovers from the point guard position. (I'm proud of JW for taking care of the ball!) Sarah Stephens was one rebound away from a double double with 13 points and 9 boards. Those were just a few who stood out in my mind out of a solid team effort last night. We hope to build on the things we did well last night (like rebounding) and correct a few of the mistakes before we head over to Blacksburg Friday night with plans of making the RU fans proud. We would really appreciate your support in the stands if you have the chance to make it out. Any words of encouragement you'd like to send the team can be posted in the comments section below this journal entry. They would love to hear from you guys!
See you at Cassell Coliseum on Friday night! Be LOUD!
JRA

Exhibition vs Lenoir-Rhyne tonight

Good morning Radford Women's Basketball fans. Today kicks off a big week for RU women's hoops. Tonight at 7:00, we play our first exhibition game against Lenoir-Rhyne College from Hickory, North Carolina and Friday night is the game that people around campus have been waiting on when we make the short trip over to Blacksburg. Yes, everybody is excited about our matchup with the Hokies on Friday, but we have to focus on one game at a time. Coach Porter reminded the girls yesterday at practice that our most important game is the next game on our schedule...and right now, that's Lenoir Rhyne. We hope to make a statement tonight. We want to show everyone in attendance how we plan to play for the entire 06-07 season. We promise not to get outworked.
Today is a typical game day for the girls. They get up, go to class, come to shoot around at 2, then pregame meal at 3. After that, most of them go home for a quick nap then they head to the gym for treatment and taping in the training room. That's followed by stretching as a team and our pregame schedule starts around 6. It's a busy schedule for them! We just hope it all leads up to them being at the top of their game at 7 when we tip off.
It's been a long time since you last had a chance to watch the Lady Highs in action last March so, we hope all of you are excited about this season finally starting. I know there are 14 girls and 4 coaches who can't wait until 7 oclock tonight!

JRA

p.s. for those of you who were wondering how our scrimmage game vs gardner webb went last week, we didn't technically keep score like a real game...but we won! This is a picture of some of the girls in the locker room before the game.