Strong Senior Class Set to Lead Women's Basketball Into 2018-19 Season

Photo by: Marc Hagemeier

Strong Senior Class Set to Lead Women's Basketball Into 2018-19 Season

11/3/2018 7:08:00 PM | Women's Basketball

The Bison return four starters from a team that went 22-10 last season

With three returning All-Patriot League players, an All-Rookie selection, four returning starters, and a strong group of five senior captains, the Bucknell women's basketball team looks poised to build upon what has become the most successful era in program history.

The Bison are just two years removed from winning the Patriot League title and were recently picked first in the league's preseason poll for a third consecutive season.

A handful of teams have been in contention over the past few seasons, but none have been consistently near the top like Bucknell has. The Bison have finished tied for first, first, and second in the regular season standings in the past three years. During that time, they have gone an astounding 48-6 in league play.

How impressive is that record? Army has the next best record during that stretch, 10 games worse than the Bison at 38-16. In fact every other team in the league — all nine of them — have had at least nine league losses in a single season sometime in the past three years.

Now Bucknell may have the deepest roster in head coach Aaron Roussell's seven years with the team as it is coming off a season in which it went 22-10 overall, 15-3 in the Patriot League and qualified for a national postseason tournament for the third straight year.

That strong roster starts with a trio of seniors that have already been a part of the core that has made the program into the perennial contender it has become. Kate Walker, a 6-0 guard, was a First Team All-Patriot League selection last season, 6-2 forward Kaitlyn Slagus made the Second Team for the second straight year, and 5-5 point guard Kyi English landed a spot on the Third Team. Walker and Slagus were already tabbed as two of the league's top five players in a preseason vote by the head coaches and sports information directors.

That trio will be joined as team captains by fellow seniors Rachel Dumiak and Maegan Mikkelsen. Dumiak, a guard, started 27 games last season, while Mikkelsen was a key reserve.

"We're really excited to have the five seniors back," Bucknell head coach Aaron Roussell said. "To bring back so much experience is huge for us. This offense can be tough to pick up, and every year you get a little more comfortable with it."

Slagus returns as one of the best post players in the Patriot League and has a chance to make Bucknell history. She has already eclipsed 1,000 career points and with 297 more rebounds would become the school's first ever player to reach the 1,000 milestone in both categories. It won't be easy. She had 290 rebounds as a sophomore and 287 as a junior.

"Slagus is a legitimate inside-outside scorer for us," Roussell said. "She is one of the best low post players in the league."

Bucknell's post unit took a hit with the graduation of Catherine Romaine, a Patriot League All-Defensive selection last season, but may get an offensive boost from Ellie Mack. She made the position change in the offseason and looked good in the team's games in Europe during the summer and in the preseason exhibition games. She showed glimpses of her offensive skills last year with double-digit points in eight games, including a career-high 20 at Lehigh.

A pair of forwards saw significant time as rookies last season and will look to make even more of an impact as sophomores. Autumn Ceppi quickly established herself as one of the team's better defensive players, while Tessa Brugler proved to be a spark off the bench with her ability to rebound, especially her knack for reading the ball off the rim on the offensive end.

Walker and English are unquestionably the leaders of the team's guards. After succeeding off the bench in her first two seasons, Walker developed into a legitimate Player of the Year candidate as a junior. She led the team in scoring at 12.8 ppg and led the charge as the team went 12-1 to close the regular season. She led the team in scoring in the first eight games of that stretch, including four games of 20-plus points. She is one of the league's top offensive threats with her ability to hit from beyond the arc or get to the basket. Fouling her isn't an option as she shot 83 percent from the line last season, hitting 113 of her 137 free throw attempts.

"We always knew she had the potential to be a First Team type player for us," Roussell said about Walker. "That progression happened a little slower, but she really came on last season. And now from watching her in practice this season, she may be one of the best players I've ever coached."

Few players in the league have as much experience as English, who enters her fourth year as a starter. She averaged 10.0 points and led the team with 80 assists last season. With the offense starting a little slow, she provided a spark, leading the team in scoring in four of the first seven games. Highlighting that stretch was back-to-back games of 25 and 22 points.

"Not too many mid-major coaches can say they have a four-year starter at point guard," Roussell said. "That will obviously be a huge upside for us."

Sophomore guard Abby Kapp made the All-Rookie Team last season. Once she felt comfortable with the college game and found her shot, she became one of the team's go-to players from beyond the arc. She finished third on the team with 24 3-pointers. Fellow sophomore Ally Johnson also returns as a long-range threat and hopes to settle in early after missing some time with an injury to start her freshman season.

Gia Hayes returns for her junior season with plenty of experience while spelling English in the backcourt for the past two years. She has made the most of her opportunities, including a career-high 12 points while making her first career start in a win over Manhattan two seasons ago.

The team's two newest players are also highly-touted guards. Marly Walls has already shown her defense is going to be difficult for opposing guards to handle, while Taylor O'Brien has shown confidence not usually seen by a freshman in the preseason. Both players bring some much-needed athleticism to the roster as both were track stars in their respective states — Walls in Kentucky and O'Brien in Pennsylvania.

Both Walls and O'Brien eclipsed 2,000 career points in high school. O'Brien gives the Bison two straight recruiting classes with the Miss PA Basketball award winner, joining Kapp as a recipient of the honor.

Bucknell may have more lineup variations this season, including the possibility of having four guards on the floor at times.

"I wouldn't call us small, but we don't have that huge height advantage in the league like we have in the past few years," Roussell said. "I think that will make us a little more athletic and hopefully that means we can get out there and deny and pressure some people. We would like to get some offense out of our defense this year."

As always the Bison will challenge themselves with a difficult non-conference schedule, and this year's might be the toughest of the Roussell era. The team will travel for games at Syracuse and Iowa State, and opens its home schedule against mid-major power Quinnipiac. The Bobcats have won three NCAA Tournament games over the past two years.

In addition to those three opponents Bucknell has a tough away game at Drexel, as well as three games in three days as part of Brown University's Thanksgiving tournament.

"We always say we want to play a couple of BCS teams to get that experience, but we also want to challenge ourselves against other top-level mid-major programs," Roussell said. "We definitely have that playing Quinnipiac and Drexel in the first couple of weeks."

It was no surprise the Bison were picked first in the conference when you look at the recent league success and the amount of returning players. They received 14 of a possible 18 first-place votes.

"I don't want to say it's been luck, but it's really hard to go 48-6 over three years," But we know we have been really good in close games. That comes from a toughness from our group. That is going to be a challenge for us. We have lost a lot of those type of players that have led the way during that stretch. Now it's time for some other players to step up and become leaders. They've already had a tremendous impact on that program, but now it's really their program to lead."

Loyola (Md.) returns nearly its entire team, including reigning Defensive Player of the Year Stephanie Karcz and Bri Betz-White, an All-Patriot League player returning for a fifth year after suffering a season-ending injury early last season. The Greyhounds picked up four first-place votes and were picked third, one spot behind American. The Eagles, the defending league champions, received two first-place votes.

"American lost a lot, but they have really established themselves as one of the top programs year in and year out," Roussell said. "Both service academies are always near the top and you can never count them out. Lehigh and Holy Cross are always strong. And then you have Loyola who is finally healthy and could be really scary for the rest of the league."

Roussell has been pleased with what he has seen in the preseason this year. The team was able to play two games during its trip to Europe — Germany, Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Austria — in August, and recently had an exhibition game against Duquesne, the preseason favorite in the Atlantic 10.

"You can't win a championship in October and November, but you can lose one," Roussell said. "We had to figure that out last year and really reassess and figure things out in January. I'm hoping we can learn from that and be ready a little earlier this year."

If it all comes together, Roussell has high hopes for the season.

"We know this can be a special season if things go our way. But we have to put the work in. We have to be able to do the things that will make us better. Everyone gets excited for that week in March, but we have to be able to keep that excitement going through the long season."