Monday, November 7
Los Angeles, CA
5:30 P.M.
at
UCLA
Photo by: Eyasu Betwos
Mustangs Open 2022-23 Regular Season Monday at UCLA
11/6/2022 1:49:00 PM | Women's Basketball
WEEKLY NOTES (PDF)
SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. – Cal Poly women's basketball officially begins a new era Monday when opening the 2022-23 regular season at UCLA. Tip time from Pauley Pavilion is set for 5:30 p.m. The game will be streamed live on PAC-12.com. The game will be the first of 30 on the Slate for the Mustangs this year. In its final preseason exhibition game on Friday, the Mustangs beat UC Santa Cruz 90-48 with six players scoring in double figures. For the first time in 25 years, the Mustangs will have a new head coach at the helm as Shanele Stires enters her first season. She was hired in April following the retirement of Faith Mimnaugh, the winningest coach in program history, after 25 seasons with the program. Cal Poly is looking to bounce back after a 3-22 record last season. The team returns its top three scorers from last season and eight total letterwinners. On top of that, the new coaching staff brings in eight newcomers. Those consist of five true freshmen and three Division I transfers. For the Mustangs, Monday's game will begin a stretch of playing three of their first four games of the season on the road. Cal Poly will have its regular season home opener Thursday, Nov. 10 at 11 a.m. Scouting UCLA: Cal Poly is 0-9 all-time against the Bruins. The last meeting took place during the 2018-19 season in Westwood in which UCLA won 81-35. UCLA, picked to finish fourth in the PAC-12 Preseason Polls, is led by the return of its leading scorer from last year in Charisma Osborne, who was third in the PAC-12 in scoring at over 16 points per game. They are a younger team, bringing in several new players highlighted by Kiki Rice, who won the National Gatorade Player of the Year award as a senior last year and was ranked as the No. 2 recruit in the nation. Returning Mustangs: Despite losing two starters from last year, Cal Poly brings back plenty of talent, including its top three scorers. Last year, senior guard Maddie Vick led the Mustangs in scoring, assists, and minutes. Senior guard Maddie Willett returns after being second on the team in scoring last year at 8.9 points per game while leading the team in made threes and three-point percentage. Senior forward Julia Nielacna is back for her second season after averaging 8.3 points per game while playing 24 of 25 games and starting 11. In addition to those three, there are five players back this season who played in at least 22 games last season. New Stangs: Cal Poly added eight newcomers to this year's team, five freshmen and three Division I transfers. The three transfers consist of graduate student Nikola Kovacikova, graduate student Oumou Toure, and junior Taylor Wu. Kovacikova comes to Cal Poly after previously playing at both Penn and Georgetown. Last season at Penn, she played in 19 games with eight starts, totaling 56 points, 30 rebounds, 22 assists, and nine steals while averaging 14.8 minutes per game. Off the court, she earned Penn's Norman J. Goldring Prize and George H. Frazier Prize which is given to a senior female student-athlete with the highest GPA. She spent her first two collegiate seasons at Georgetown, where as a sophomore in 2019-20, she appeared in 27 games with 12 starts and was the Hoyas' third-leading scorer, averaging 7.9 ppg as well as pulling in 3.2 rpg. Toure spent the last three years at Butler. She played her freshman season before missing the next two due to injury and the COVID pandemic. As a freshman in 2019-20, she was named to the Big East All-Freshman Team. That season, she appeared in 27 games, making 20 starts and ranked second on the team in scoring at 9.1 points per game while shooting 46 percent from the field to go along with 6.1 rebounds per game. She also led the Big East and ranked 45th in the NCAA in steals per game at 2.33. Wu played her first three seasons at California Baptist University where she played in 70 career games. She made her mark as a freshman in 2019-20, averaging 6.6 ppg, 1.7 rpg, 1.7 apg in 18.4 minutes per game. She broke the program's freshman single game scoring record after dropping 37 points against Ottawa (AZ) and in the same game broke the program record for threes made in a game with 10. As a sophomore, she started 19 of 27 games, averaging 8.9 ppg, 1.7 apg, and 21.9 minutes per game. Follow Cal Poly: Get behind the scenes content of Cal Poly women's basketball all season long by following us on Twitter @CalPolyWBB and Instagram @CalPolyWBB.
SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. – Cal Poly women's basketball officially begins a new era Monday when opening the 2022-23 regular season at UCLA. Tip time from Pauley Pavilion is set for 5:30 p.m. The game will be streamed live on PAC-12.com. The game will be the first of 30 on the Slate for the Mustangs this year. In its final preseason exhibition game on Friday, the Mustangs beat UC Santa Cruz 90-48 with six players scoring in double figures. For the first time in 25 years, the Mustangs will have a new head coach at the helm as Shanele Stires enters her first season. She was hired in April following the retirement of Faith Mimnaugh, the winningest coach in program history, after 25 seasons with the program. Cal Poly is looking to bounce back after a 3-22 record last season. The team returns its top three scorers from last season and eight total letterwinners. On top of that, the new coaching staff brings in eight newcomers. Those consist of five true freshmen and three Division I transfers. For the Mustangs, Monday's game will begin a stretch of playing three of their first four games of the season on the road. Cal Poly will have its regular season home opener Thursday, Nov. 10 at 11 a.m. Scouting UCLA: Cal Poly is 0-9 all-time against the Bruins. The last meeting took place during the 2018-19 season in Westwood in which UCLA won 81-35. UCLA, picked to finish fourth in the PAC-12 Preseason Polls, is led by the return of its leading scorer from last year in Charisma Osborne, who was third in the PAC-12 in scoring at over 16 points per game. They are a younger team, bringing in several new players highlighted by Kiki Rice, who won the National Gatorade Player of the Year award as a senior last year and was ranked as the No. 2 recruit in the nation. Returning Mustangs: Despite losing two starters from last year, Cal Poly brings back plenty of talent, including its top three scorers. Last year, senior guard Maddie Vick led the Mustangs in scoring, assists, and minutes. Senior guard Maddie Willett returns after being second on the team in scoring last year at 8.9 points per game while leading the team in made threes and three-point percentage. Senior forward Julia Nielacna is back for her second season after averaging 8.3 points per game while playing 24 of 25 games and starting 11. In addition to those three, there are five players back this season who played in at least 22 games last season. New Stangs: Cal Poly added eight newcomers to this year's team, five freshmen and three Division I transfers. The three transfers consist of graduate student Nikola Kovacikova, graduate student Oumou Toure, and junior Taylor Wu. Kovacikova comes to Cal Poly after previously playing at both Penn and Georgetown. Last season at Penn, she played in 19 games with eight starts, totaling 56 points, 30 rebounds, 22 assists, and nine steals while averaging 14.8 minutes per game. Off the court, she earned Penn's Norman J. Goldring Prize and George H. Frazier Prize which is given to a senior female student-athlete with the highest GPA. She spent her first two collegiate seasons at Georgetown, where as a sophomore in 2019-20, she appeared in 27 games with 12 starts and was the Hoyas' third-leading scorer, averaging 7.9 ppg as well as pulling in 3.2 rpg. Toure spent the last three years at Butler. She played her freshman season before missing the next two due to injury and the COVID pandemic. As a freshman in 2019-20, she was named to the Big East All-Freshman Team. That season, she appeared in 27 games, making 20 starts and ranked second on the team in scoring at 9.1 points per game while shooting 46 percent from the field to go along with 6.1 rebounds per game. She also led the Big East and ranked 45th in the NCAA in steals per game at 2.33. Wu played her first three seasons at California Baptist University where she played in 70 career games. She made her mark as a freshman in 2019-20, averaging 6.6 ppg, 1.7 rpg, 1.7 apg in 18.4 minutes per game. She broke the program's freshman single game scoring record after dropping 37 points against Ottawa (AZ) and in the same game broke the program record for threes made in a game with 10. As a sophomore, she started 19 of 27 games, averaging 8.9 ppg, 1.7 apg, and 21.9 minutes per game. Follow Cal Poly: Get behind the scenes content of Cal Poly women's basketball all season long by following us on Twitter @CalPolyWBB and Instagram @CalPolyWBB.
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