Alcalá 1986

Coach Kathy Marpe and the 1985-86 women's basketball team at the niver ity of an Diego began their eason on October 15 with the first practice of what Marpe thought would be a very successful campaign. "I definitely think we will win our conference championship," state the Toreros' coach, who be– gan her sixth season at USD. The Toreros com· pieced this season in a conference for the first time, as they joined six ocher schools in che new West Coast Athletic Conference for women. Twelve players began practicing for U D's sea– son opener against defending CAA Division II national champion Cal Poly Pomona on Friday, ovembec 22. Before then, Marpe and her staff were getting an idea of how the team wa progress– ing at the Toreros· intrasquad scrimmage on Occo– ber 31, and then a scrimmage with Point Loma College on ovember 19. Having 12 players in practice was at least two less than Marpe had expected to have, bur return– ing players Amy Hillenbrand (6-3 sophomore) and Maribeth Rcu (6-2 ophomorc) decided to leave for personal reasons. ,

BASKETBALL

The empha i ac practices in the early going was on basic . "We're really working hard on funda– mentals," explained Marpe. "I chink we have more talent than ever, but the key (co our season) will be how crong we are on fundamentals." Marpe counted heavily on a pair of returnees from last eason· 14-13 quad. enior Debbie Therous ( 12.2 ppg, 8. rpg) and iunior achy O'Brien ( 10.6 ppg, 7.2 rpg) were the team's top two returning . corer and rebounder . ewcomer Kelli Behrens (6-3 Junior), who red hirtecl last eason after transferring from the l niver ity of Minne ota filled the role at center, while Julie Evans ( 5. 10 freshman) saw plenty of playing time at guard. The Torero had a chance early in the sea on to perfect their game at home, as six of the team' first eight playing dates were at the D ports Center. D began WCAC play on January 17 on the road against Loyola Mayrmoum. Later in the eason, the Torero took a break from conference play to compete in the prestigious Alaskan orthern Lights Tournament February 2 through March 2.

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