USD Women's Basketball 2001-2002

2{J

Torero Review 2000-0 I

that same Santa Clara team 64-63 in the Jenny Craig Pa– vilion. Nakamoto matched a season-high scoring 17 points in the win, but in the proceeding games the Toreros would fall to three straight WCC opponents scoring an average of just 49 points per contest. "Our offensive output really dropped last season," Head Coach Kathy Marpe explains, "I minimized the ef– fect of losing Susie Erpelding, the leading career scorer at USD and the MVP of the conference tournament from 1999. Erpelding averaged 20 points, Jessica Gray ten to fifteen. Taking away those scorers and not finding a con– sistent scorer really hurt us," Head Coach Kathy Marpe added. The Toreros entered the season losing Erpelding and Gray to graduation in 1999-00. Erpelding and Gray were key players for a Torero team that won the WCC Tournament and compiled a school record 17 wins bring– ing San Diego the school's second NCAA Tournament appearance in 1999-00. Erpelding set San Diego's all-time scoring record for a career and for a single season in 1999-00. Despite the efforts of leading scorer Amber Jansen and three-point specialist Kerri Nakamoto, the Toreros finished the season scoring just 63 points per game as a team. Torero point guard Melissa Glazebrook would come down with an illness that kept her out of the line-up for most of the season and proved to keep USD out of confer– ence contention. The season ended for San Diego with a 63-53 loss to Loyola Marymount in the first round of the WCC tour– nament. Young players such as freshmen Melissa Padgett and Marta Menuez showed Torero fans a promising glimpse of the future. The young talent combined with the return of key players in the Torero backcourt has San Diego faithful excited about the 2001-02 San Diego sea– son.

The 2000-2001 University of San Diego women's basketball team experienced one of the programs most up and down seasons in recent memory. San Diego fin– ished the season with a 10-16 overall record and a 5-9 mark in the West Coast Conference. The season began with the excitement of playing in the newly built 17 million dollar Jenny Craig Pavilion. The arena allowed San Diego early season success in 2000-01 beginning play in the Jenny Craig with a 62-59 win over Long Beach State. The Toreros would continue to roll early on thumping UCLA 86-67 on the road im– proving to 2-0.

Led by junior center Amber Jansen, who scored 15.8 points per game and grabbed a team-high 7.2 rebounds, the Toreros would enter a crucial non-conference home game against the #15 ranked Oklahoma Sooners, with their season record standing at 3-3. A game that proved to be one of the most thrilling in recent memory ended in a 65-63 double overtime decision in favor of the Sooners. Losing to Oklahoma would not break the Torero's spirit. San Diego rebounded in the USD Invitational Tour– nament winning at home drubbing UC Riverside 97-75. The 97 points scored against Riverside was a season-high for USD, who entered conference play two weeks later with a record of 5-6. Torero's Kerri Nakamoto and Melissa Glazebrook immediately provided Head Coach Kathy Marpe leader– ship in the backcourt. Nakamoto, who connected on 48 three-point shots on the season, hit 14 three's in the Toreros first six games. Glazebrook scored career-high 17 points against PAC-10 opponent USC in a non-confer– ence game early in December. San Diego entered their conference schedule af– ter posting a season-high 97 points against UC Riverside. San Diego would stumble out of the gates in conference play, losing their first four games in WCC. The Toreros once again bounced back, picking up two consecutive WCC wins during a weekend home stand against Gonzaga and Portland. The weekend sweep would give them new life six games into their conference schedule. The roller-coaster ride would continue. On January 31st, San Diego traveled to the Bay Area and was thumped by Santa Clara 61-41. Three days later San Diego would beat

Torero shooting gaurd Kerri Nakamoto recieved All-WCC Honorable Mention honors in 2000-01