Thursday, November 10
San Luis Obispo, Calif.
11 A.M.
vs
Simpson University (Calif.)
Mustangs Host Simpson Thursday Morning for Home Opener
11/8/2022 3:15:00 PM | Women's Basketball
WEEKLY NOTES (PDF)
SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. — After opening its season Monday on the road against UCLA, Cal Poly women's basketball returns to Mott Athletics Center Thursday to host Simpson University for a morning game. Tip time is set for 11 a.m. for the annual Field Trip game which will see Mott filled with elementary school kids from around the Central Coast. Chris Sylvester and Kevin Brown will be on the call for the game which will be streamed live on ESPN+. That link along with live stats can be found on the schedule page. In the season opener against the Bruins, Cal Poly fell 84-48. Julia Nielacna and Sydney Bourland each scored in double figures for the Mustangs. For the first time in 25 years, the Mustangs will have a new head coach at the helm as Shanele Stires enters her first year as head coach. She was hired in April following the retirement of Faith Mimnaugh, the winningest coach in Cal Poly women's basketball history, after 25 seasons with the program. Cal Poly is looking to bounce back after a 3-22 record last season. The team's top three scorers return from last year and eight total letterwinners. On top of that, the new coaching staff brought in eight newcomers. Those consist of five true freshmen and three Division I transfers. Following Thursday game, Cal Poly goes back on the road to face No. 2 Stanford and Fresno State next week. Scouting Simpson: This will be the first meeting all-time between the Mustangs and the Red Hawks. Simpson, an NAIA school out of Redding, Calif., is 2-0 so far this season. Last year, they finished 9-17. Returning Mustangs: Despite losing two starters from last year, Cal Poly brings back plenty from last year's team. The team's top three scorers are all back this year. Senior guard Maddie Vick led the team in scoring, assists, and minutes last season. Senior guard Maddie Willett returns after being second on the team in scoring last year at 8.9 ppg while leading the team in made threes and three point percentage. Senior forward Julia Nielacna is also back after averaging 8.3 ppg last season while playing in 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 year. 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. 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. 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. Toure comes to Cal Poly after having 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 spent the last 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. She scored in double figures 11 times including a season-high 15 against Pepperdine.
SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. — After opening its season Monday on the road against UCLA, Cal Poly women's basketball returns to Mott Athletics Center Thursday to host Simpson University for a morning game. Tip time is set for 11 a.m. for the annual Field Trip game which will see Mott filled with elementary school kids from around the Central Coast. Chris Sylvester and Kevin Brown will be on the call for the game which will be streamed live on ESPN+. That link along with live stats can be found on the schedule page. In the season opener against the Bruins, Cal Poly fell 84-48. Julia Nielacna and Sydney Bourland each scored in double figures for the Mustangs. For the first time in 25 years, the Mustangs will have a new head coach at the helm as Shanele Stires enters her first year as head coach. She was hired in April following the retirement of Faith Mimnaugh, the winningest coach in Cal Poly women's basketball history, after 25 seasons with the program. Cal Poly is looking to bounce back after a 3-22 record last season. The team's top three scorers return from last year and eight total letterwinners. On top of that, the new coaching staff brought in eight newcomers. Those consist of five true freshmen and three Division I transfers. Following Thursday game, Cal Poly goes back on the road to face No. 2 Stanford and Fresno State next week. Scouting Simpson: This will be the first meeting all-time between the Mustangs and the Red Hawks. Simpson, an NAIA school out of Redding, Calif., is 2-0 so far this season. Last year, they finished 9-17. Returning Mustangs: Despite losing two starters from last year, Cal Poly brings back plenty from last year's team. The team's top three scorers are all back this year. Senior guard Maddie Vick led the team in scoring, assists, and minutes last season. Senior guard Maddie Willett returns after being second on the team in scoring last year at 8.9 ppg while leading the team in made threes and three point percentage. Senior forward Julia Nielacna is also back after averaging 8.3 ppg last season while playing in 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 year. 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. 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. 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. Toure comes to Cal Poly after having 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 spent the last 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. She scored in double figures 11 times including a season-high 15 against Pepperdine.
Players Mentioned
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