STORM LAKE, Iowa (November 11, 2021) - The Buena Vista University women's basketball team will tip-off its 2021-22 campaign with a pair of non-conference road games this weekend against a pair of Midwest Conference opponents in Knox College and Monmouth College, respectively.
THE MATCH-UPS
Friday, November 12 | Buena Vista (0-0) at Knox (0-1) | 7:00 p.m. | WATCH | LIVE STATS
Saturday, November 13 | Buena Vista (0-0) at Monmouth (0-1) | 3:00 p.m. | WATCH | LIVE STATS
ABOUT BUENA VISTA
Third-year BVU head coach David Wells will put a young and relatively inexperienced group out on the court this season, but is excited for the team to get things going in 2021-22. His team went 2-7 a season ago and sophomore Vanessa Hamlett is the only returning starter. She is coming off a strong first season where she started eight of the team's nine games and was third on the team in scoring at 8.2ppg and second in rebounding at 6.3rpg. Mya Guzinski appeared in all nine games off the bench and averaged 11.7 minutes per contest. Kayley Dresback also gave Wells and the Beavers depth off the bench by also playing in over 10.0 minutes per outing in the seven games in which she played. Hannah Whitver gave the team 10 points and nine rebounds in 27 minutes of play during last week's exhibition game at Southwestern Community College. Buena Vista looks to improve on its overall shooting after being held to under 60.0ppg and shooting 37.5 percent overall from the field and 21.3 percent from long range.
ABOUT KNOX
The Prairie Fire tipped-off its season with a heartbreaking 57-55 road loss at Augustana (Ill.) on Tuesday night. Catessa Duran turned in a team-high 11 points and five rebounds over 30 minutes. Sarina Dacio was right behind with nine points on 3-of-6 shooting while Haylee Carpenter was 2-of-5 shooting from long range and added eight points. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Knox was limited to only three games a year ago and finished 1-2 in those contests. Dacio led the way by averaging over 15.0ppg and made 11 three-point buckets, Duran chimed in with over 8.0ppg and 7.0rpg. If you go back to the last full season in 2019-20, Knox was 16-10 overall and 11-7 inside the Midwest Conference with Duran turning in over 5.0ppg that season and registering a team-high 75 steals.
ABOUT MONMOUTH
The Scots opened the year with a tough 72-63 road loss at Iowa Wesleyan on Wednesday night despite getting 14 points and six rebounds apiece from Kaitlyn Osmulski and Josie Morgan. The duo combined to shoot 4-of-12 from downtown as Monmouth finished 9-of-27 from beyond the arc. Tarae Warner just missed out on double figures with nine points with all nine coming on 3-of-5 shooting from distance. The team is being guided by first-year head coach Megan Jones after going 21-7 back in 2019-20 after missing out on last season due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Four of the top-five scorers are still on the roster from the 2019-20 team led by Osmulski, who turned in nearly 8.0ppg and made a team-leading 42 three-point shots. Monmouth advanced to the NCAA Tournament that season but was dealt an opening-round loss to No. 5 Wartburg. Warner shot over 42 percent from long range with Morgan chipping in with nearly 6.0ppg and shooting better than 30 percent from three-point range.
