August 27, 2004

Youth to Play Big Role in Women's Basketball Season

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After graduating all five starters from last years squad, the womens basketball team will gladly welcome four new faces to its sidelines for the 2004-05 campaign.

Freshmen Lindsay Krasna, Gretchen Gregg, Megan Hughes and Morgan Dickens make up the 2008 recruiting class that will try to help third year coach Dayna Smith improve upon Cornells 9-18 (4-10 Ivy) record from last season.

“All four of them understand the game and love basketball,” said Smith. “They should make an impact this year.”

Highlighting the group of incoming players are Krasna and Gregg, two tall guards from Pennsylvania who each set their respective high schools’ all-time scoring record.

Krasna, a resident of Yardley, Penn., averaged 15.4 points, 5.6 rebounds, 3.7 assists and 2.8 steals per game as a senior at Pennsbury High School. A four-year starter who accumulated 1,293 points while in high school, the 5-11 guard also received first-team all-county and all-league honors in 2004.

“She is a great pull-up jumper,” said Smith. “She brings a very much needed scorers mentality and can also play a little bit of everything.”

Gregg hails from Marienville, Penn. and was a four-year starter in both basketball and volleyball at East Forest High School. As a senior, she averaged 22.9 points, 9.8 rebounds, 4.0 steals and 2.8 assists per game — good enough to be named to the Class A all-state first team. Gregg finished her high school career with an impressive 1,688 points scored.

“She can shoot the three and is also a very good defender,” said Smith. “She should also bring some much needed scoring.”

Hughes, a 6-1 forward/center from Charlottesville, Va., should give Cornell a good boost on the boards. Though she missed part of her senior year season at St. Annes-Belfield after aggravating an old injury, the post player racked up plenty of accolades as a junior. During that season, Hughes earned all-state and all-district honors while leading her team to an undefeated record in league play and the Virginia state title.

A very athletic and strong player, Smith believes that Hughes should bring some strength to the recently thinned-out Red frontcourt.

“She came back in unbelievable shape from the summer,” said Smith. “We are not very deep at her position and she should have an immediate impact on the team.”

Rounding out the incoming class is Dickens, a 6-0 forward out of San Antonio, Texas, who averaged 8.0 points, 7.0 rebounds and 2.0 assists as a senior captain at William H. Taft High School. A three-year starter, she helped her team reach both the regional and state finals during her high school career.

“She has great touch from 5 to 10 feet and can get up and down the court very well,” said Smith.

All the incoming freshman should have playing opportunities as Smith will try to implement a system that will depend on all her players seeing action.

“We are going to play an up-tempo, aggressive game,” Smith said. “Our strength is that ten or eleven players on our team will play. We wont depend on just one or two.”

Archived article by Scott Reich
Sun Staff Writer