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Red Hawks Look Towards the Future
Ripon finished last season with their second consecutive losing season, after a string of five consecutive years with a winning record. With all the players from last year's team having one more year of experience under their belts, the Red Hawks are hoping to start a new string of winning seasons in
2008-09.
They will have to do so with a flurry of underclassmen. The Red Hawks return just one senior from last year's team, as Jeni Yaeger (Clintonville, Wis./Clintonville) will assume more of a leadership role a year after averaging 8.2 points and 5.9 rebounds per game. Yaeger started all 23 games in 2007-08, as did junior Jessica DeHamer (Neenah, Wis./Neenah), who will join Yaeger in the front court and try to improve on her team-leading 8.4 points and 5.9 rebounds per contest.
Another player to watch out for this season will be sophomore Emily Meyer (Sherwood, Wis./St. Mary's Central), who started each of her final 12 games last year, while recording four double-doubles. In her first year of collegiate basketball, Meyer was named Second Team All-Conference, while averaging 8.1 points and a team-high 6.2 rebounds per game. She also shot 30.4 percent from behind the three-point line, something the Red Hawks will hope the entire team will improve on, after making just 22.9 percent of their shots from long-range last year.
At the guard position, Ripon will again rely heavily on juniors Ashley Meister (Suamico, Wis./Bayport) and Carissa Zuercher (Delafield, Wis./Waukesha West), who combined to start 31 games last season. Meister scored 4.6 points per game, while grabbing 2.9 rebounds and dishing out 1.6 assists at the point guard position, where she will again see plenty of minutes. Zuercher is coming off a season that saw her record the ninth-most steals by a Red Hawk in a single season, with 52. In addition to her defensive prowess, Zuercher was fourth on the team in scoring, with 5.2 points per game, while also adding 1.7 rebounds and a team-high 2.4 assists per game.
Fellow junior Amanda Lindauer (Sturgeon Bay, Wis./Southern Door) will provide plenty of experience off the bench, having played an average of 15 minutes per game in each of the past two seasons. Last year, Lindauer scored 3.7 points per game, while also pulling down 2.3 rebounds and 1.0 assists per contest.
Sophomore Staci Dieringer (Adell, Wis./Random Lake) will be another spark off the bench, as she is expected to be 100 percent recovered from a late-season injury. She played in the first 20 games of her inaugural season, until the injury forced her to sit out the final three contests. Dieringer will return as one of the team's top three-point threats, shooting 29.3 percent from downtown. Averaging 10.5 minutes off the bench, she scored 3.0 points per game, while also grabbing 1.6 rebounds per contest.
Katie Horkan (New Lisbon, Wis./Freedom) will contribute this season as one of Ripon's top threats in the post. Horkan played in 20 games last year as a freshman and will likely increase on her average of nine minutes per game. The sophomore was one of the team leaders in field goal percentage, making 42 percent of her shots from the floor, en route to averaging 2.5 points and 1.4 rebounds per game.
Also adding depth to this year's team will be Jana VanHandel (Appleton, Wis./Freedom) and Jessica Goudreau (New London, Wis./Shiocton), who combined to play 10.2 minutes per game. Goudreau appeared in 19 games, averaging 1.7 points, while shooting 40.5 percent from the field. VanHandel averaged 1.0 points in the 11 games she played.
The improvements of this year's team may depend largely on their eight newcomers. Freshmen Morgan Abert (Waupaca, Wis./Waupaca) will see some time at point guard, as she'll try to push the ball up the court and improve on the Red Hawk's 53.2 points per game from a year ago. She will be joined by fellow freshmen guard Emily Romatoski (Eagle River, Wis./Northland Pines), who will likely play both guard positions. Skye Gonyo (Berlin, Wis./Berlin) will provide some guard depth as well, once she recovers from an injury that could keep her out until mid-December.
Alexis Becker (North Fond du Lac, Wis./North Fond du Lac) and Rachel Giese (Fond du Lac, Wis./Winnebago Lutheran Academy) are two other freshmen guards that will be looked at to contribute at both the offensive and defensive ends. Junior transfer Sam Bickert (Ripon, Wis./Ripon), will also add to the Ripon offensive attack with her long-range shooting.
Bickert will be joined by fellow Ripon High School graduate, freshman Erin Lind (Ripon, Wis./Ripon), who will give the Red Hawks some added depth down low. Possibly Ripon's most polished post player will also be in her first year in a Red Hawk uniform, as freshman Heidi Baerenwald (Appleton, Wis./Appleton East) plays her best with her back to the basket.
The Red Hawks won't have much time to gel before they are challenged this season. They play arguably the toughest schedule in the Midwest, with four games against teams in the Division III pre-season top 25, including the number one ranked UW-Whitewater Warhawks. In addition to UW-W, Ripon will take on UW-Eau Claire (no. 22) and St. Norbert (no. 17) twice
Ripon will open their 2008-09 season on Saturday, November 15 at 2 p.m. at Wyman Gymnasium in Ripon's Storzer Center.
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