Pictures

Ok, I've finally had a little time to relax and load pictures onto my laptop so I thought I would share some pictures from the first semester and the first part of our season. I hope you enjoy and Merry Christmas from all of us at RU!


The team stretching before our game at the University of Evansville in Indiana.







Kelli and Serena on the plane going to New York (maybe Serena is making that face because she doesn't want to sit next to Kelli?)

The girls looking festive at the Hoop Group Christmas Party









More of the girls and guys at the Christmas Party








For those of you who don't know, Sarah is very talented off the court. Here, she's singing and playing the piano at the Christmas Party.









Davida, Meagan, Shavon, Corrie, and Rachel sporting red Rudolph noses at the Christmas party

Merry Christmas

Ok I know it has been a LONG time since I last posted a journal entry...my mom has reminded me of that fact every day lately. I have no good excuse as to why I haven't kept up better except that I really haven't had much to say. Since I last wrote, alot has been going on. So, here's a quick update to catch all of you up on what's going on in the lives of the Lady Highlanders. On Dec. 4th, we hit the road for what seems like our 10th road trip of the year to play Belmont University in Nashville, TN. The restaurant we ate at the night before the game had line dance lessons and then a chance to show off what you had learned. Needless to say, our girls are not at all shy and they quickly became the life of the party. I think everyone in the building knew who the best dancers were because they got somewhat of a large cheer when we finally dragged them off the floor to get back to the hotel. We then had a 13 day break in our schedule because the NCAA will not allow us to play a game during finals week. Our girls studied very hard and from what we hear from them, we should achieve our team goal of at least a 3.0 team grade point average. During finals week, we brought in our male practice team to give us the opportunity to play against some better competition and polish up or correct a few things we had noticed in the first 7 games of the season. All of us coaches made recruiting trips that week loooking for the next class of Lady Highlanders and came back feeling good about the players we are going after. We also attended the Hoop Group Christmas Party. That party is put on by a group of mens and womens RU basketball supporters and always means a great night of conversation and some very good food. The picture at the top is Corrie, Vandy, Kelli, Meagan, and Rachel at the party. After finals, we played a much needed home game against Appalachian State University. We won that game by 12 and had several players come out and play very well for us. Sarah led us with 17 points, Corrie had a double-double, and Johnette played very solid at the PG position in front of her Mom, Dad, and sister who made the trip to Radford. Our last game before Christmas break was once again on the road at East Tennessee State University. We lost a heartbreaker in Johnson City with a score of 54-52 and returned to Radford wishing we could have that one back. We know that we are more talented than our record shows right now and we hope that the lessons we are learning through all of these road games will pay off when conference play rolls around. As for now, it is officially Christmas Eve and I am very happy to be at home in Georgia with my family and my dog. My little brother and I have been watching christmas tournament games the past two days and doing some last minute shopping. The crowd at Walmart today made me promise to finish my shopping much earlier next year! Even though I can never fully escape from hoops and take my mind completely off basketball and our season, I love this short break and the chance to sleep in, see my family, and eat a few home-cooked meals. I hope this gets you all caught up and excited about everything that is going on with RU basketball. I, along with all of the RU Women's Hoops family would like to wish all of you a very Merry Christmas and a healthy and happy new year. Put in on your calendars now: we play 4 straight home games starting on New Year's Eve and we'd love to see you in the stands. See you then!
Merry Christmas,
JRA

Road Warriors

It was a long weekend of traveling to Ithaca, New York for the Lady Highlanders. We left Radford last Thursday morning at 5am and finally made it back yesterday afternoon. We came back 1-1 in the tournament after losing a tough one to Duquesne on Friday night and then beat tournament host Cornell on Saturday afternoon in the consolation game. The girls (especially Johnette) complained about the dinner we ordered on Friday after the game and then were commenting during the game on Saturday that since we were winning, maybe they would get to eat good on Saturday night. They said they have to work hard for their meals. They did play very well on Saturday against Cornell and it was very apparent that defense was the focus. Some of our defenses looked as good as we've seen them look all year. It's great as a coach to watch a team have so much fun playing defense. I hope that continues! We had a good dinner on Saturday night and as always, we were the life of the entire restaurant. When you get all of us sitting at one table, it always seems to get loud and we can tell that everyone else is jealous that they can't be included in our fun! The girls sang happy birthday to a complete stranger and I think a few of them were flirting with our waiter. It was a good way to end our trip. Today, we will get on the bus to go to Nashville, Tennessee to play Belmont University tomorrow night. It is about a 5 1/2 hour trip and I'm hoping the DVD player on the bus works so we can pass the time watching movies. Belmont is a great team who won their conference last year, and beating them on the road would be a big win for us. My Dad is bringing my grandmother and great aunt to the game so I'm very excited! I hope to write again on Wednesday when we make it back to RU. After that, no more road games until the 20th...we'll be glad to sleep in our own beds for a while.

The top left picture is Becca (our manager), Coach T, and Corrie at dinner Saturday night. The top right picture is Shavon, Meagan, Bebe, and Becca chillin in their hotel room.

JRA

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??