Cal Poly Visits Northern Arizona University for Monday Matchup

Monday, December 13

Flagstaff, AZ

5 P.M.

Northern Arizona University

Photo by: Owen Main | Cal Poly Athletics

Cal Poly Visits Northern Arizona University for Monday Matchup

12/9/2021 2:46:00 PM | Women's Basketball

WEEKLY NOTES (PDF)

SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. — After finishing a five-game homestand last week, the Cal Poly women's basketball team will now embark on two game road trip beginning Monday at Northern Arizona University. Tip time inside Rolle Activity Center is set for 5 p.m. PT (6 p.m. MT). The game will be live streamed on ESPN+. A link for that as well as live stats can be found on the schedule page. The Mustangs (1-5) will be looking to snap a three game losing skid. Last weekend, Cal Poly fell to Denver at home 63-75. Three Mustangs scored in double figures and Cal Poly set a season-high for offensive rebounds with 19, its most in a game since they had 26 against Holy Names on Jan. 2, 2020. So far this season, the Mustangs have been led by two players who are averaging double digit points. Junior guard Maddie Vick leads the team with 11.7 points per game while fellow junior guard Maddie Willett is right behind her at 10 points per game. Vick also lead the team in assists (3.8 per game), field goal percentage (50 percent), and minutes per game (31.8). She has played all 40 minutes for the first times in her career the previous two contests. In five of Cal Poly's six games this season, the Mustangs have been led in scoring by either Willett or Vick. Vick has scored in double digits four times this season while Willett has three times. The Mustangs have received strong contributions from the upperclassmen of Vick and Willett as well as seniors Kirsty Brown and Hannah Scanlan. However, Cal Poly has also been reliant on the play of a number of its underclassmen. Three freshmen guards, Jazzy Anousinh, Sydney Bourland, and Annika Shah, have each started at least one game so far. A total of six freshmen and sophomores have played for the Mustangs this season. The Lumberjacks head into their two games this week with a 3-3 record and a two game win streak. Last week, they beat Weber State 83-79 before taking down Idaho State in overtime 81-74. Northern Arizona has been led in scoring so far this season by graduate forward Khiarica Rasheed's 14.5 points per game and 7.0 rebounds per game. In addition, they also have six players averaging at least six points per game. As a team, they are shooting 46.9 percent from the field which ranks 20th in the nation. Cal Poly is 0-2 all-time against NAU, falling at home in 2016-17 season and on the road in the 2017-18 season. Brown Nearing Program Record: Kirsty Brown, a fifth-year player, needs to play in just 17 more games to become the Mustangs' program leader in career games played. The record is 124 and she currently sits at 108. Returning Mustangs: The Mustangs return a total of eight players from last season. Those include junior guard Maddie Willett who started 23 of 24 games last year and was third on the team in scoring at 7.8 points per game and had seven games in which she scored double figures. Senior forward Kirsty Brown returns for her fifth season. Last year, she was fourth on the team in scoring 6.4 points per game, second in rebounding at 5.6 per game, and had three double-doubles. Junior guard Maddie Vick played in all 24 games last season and came off the bench to lead the team in assists per game at 2.8. She also ranked third in the Big West in assist-to-turnover ratio at 2.6. New Stangs: Cal Poly will have plenty of youth on this year's team as they welcome six freshmen. The Mustangs also added two Division I transfers in redshirt freshman guard Sarah Dumitrescu from Ole Miss and junior forward Julia Nielacna from San Francisco. At USF, Nielacna was second on the team in scoring as a freshman in 2019-20. Last year, she averaged 8.0 points per game while shooting 44-percent from the field and 35-percent from three. As a freshman last season at Ole Miss, Dumitrescu averaged 4.5 points and 7.3 rebounds per game in six games before missing the rest of the season due to injury.