Beavers Open Season Ranked 20th in AP Poll
CORVALLIS, Ore. – The preseason excitement surrounding the Oregon State women’s basketball team continued Thursday, as the Beavers made their way into the AP rankings for the first time since 1996, coming in at No. 20. The ranking matches Oregon State’s highest ever in the AP preseason poll (1995).
The USA Today Coaches’ poll will be released next week.
Season tickets for Oregon State women's basketball are now on sale by calling 1-800-GO BEAVS or logging onto beavertickets.com. Season tickets are $99 reserved and $64 general admission.
Oregon State will host an exhibition against Western Oregon on Sunday Nov. 9, before opening its season against Portland on Nov. 14 at Gill Coliseum.
The Beavers return all five starters from a team that went 24-11 last year, and made the second round of the NCAA Tournament. Oregon State also brings back 95 percent of its scoring and 96 percent of its rebounds from a year ago.
Sophomore guard Sydney Wiese returns to the team as one of the squad’s most promising players. Wiese, the first OSU freshman since Tanja Kostic in 1993 to receive a spot on the All-Pac-12 Team, obliterated the school record for 3-point makes, draining 112 last season, the most ever for a Pac-12 freshman and second overall in single-season conference history. That number is tied for 20th in NCAA single-season history and tied for fourth among NCAA freshmen all-time.
Senior Ali Gibson will look to close out her collegiate career on a high note, after starting all 99 games the Beavers have played since she joined the program. The Woodbridge, Calif. native is fourth in school history with 139 3-pointers.
Junior post Ruth Hamblin will look to aim to build on 2013-14 Pac-12 All-Defensive Team selection last season. The center from British Columbia set the Pac-12 single-season blocks record with 141 last year, and posted the first Oregon State triple-double in over 30 years when she went for 23 points, 12 rebounds and 10 blocks against Oregon.
Junior guard Jamie Weisner has made 103 three-pointers in her career, and shot 39.9 percent from beyond the arc last season. Sophomore Gabriella Hanson will aim to continue building on a strong 2013-14 Pac-12 campaign, after scoring 9.7 points per game on 44.9 percent shooting during conference play a year ago.
Junior forward Deven Hunter will look to build on a sophomore campaign that saw her average 8.8 points and 7.4 rebounds per game. Hunter’s 258 rebounds last season was the 10th-highest total in school history.
The front-court trio of junior Samantha Siegner, and sophomores Kolbie Orum and Breanna Brown will all look to contribute, heading into the upcoming campaign. Siegner scored in double-figures against Stanford last season, and posted a six-point, six-rebound performance against UCLA. Orum appeared in 22 games, posting 16 points and eight rebounds against Sacramento State. Brown finished the year 11th in the conference in blocks, with 0.93 per game.
Oregon State also welcomes a trio of new players in transfer Jen'Von'Ta Hill and freshmen Marie Gülich and Alex Kalmbach. Hill recorded 322 assists for Hutchinson Community College, helping the Blue Dragons to a 35-1 record during her sophomore season. Gülich has extensive experience in the German national system, while Kalmbach was a two year starter at Bishop O’Dowd High School, where she played in three California State Championship games.
The Beavers also announced a contract extension for head coach Scott Rueck on Monday. You can read all about that by clicking here.