Irish take on Valpo in opener
By NOAH AMSTADTER
Assistant Sports Editor
In a match-up pitting two of the most prominent exits off of Interstate 80, the Notre Dame women's basketball team opens the 2000 regular season at 7:30 p.m. at Valparaiso.
While the Irish are one of the top-ranked teams nationally, the Crusaders are in more of a rebuilding mode after losing six members of last season's team to graduation.
Notre Dame is coming off of wins in both of their preseason games, the last coming Tuesday night against Tapiolan Honka, a team from Finland. First-team All-American center Ruth Riley played sparingly in each of the games, but impressed against Finland by not committing a single foul.
Fifth-year guard Niele Ivey has shown athleticism and versatility in each of the games, narrowly missing a triple-double Tuesday. Ivey also has totaled 17 rebounds in the two games, an impressive feat for a 5-foot-7 shooting guard.
"The way we're playing defense right now, she's under [the basket] a lot," said Irish head coach Muffet McGraw. "She's working harder I think to get them. She's got great hands, she's really strong, I'm really proud."
The Crusaders return a strong core group of post players. 6-foot-1 forward Carie Wickham is the lone senior on the team and provides leadership to the young group of players. Also returning to the Valparaiso frontcourt are juniors Amber Schober and Marlous Nieuwveen.
Nieuwveen — a 6-foot-5 native of Leiderdorp in the Netherlands — led all scorers in Notre Dame's 88-63 win Dec. 29, 1999.
Despite the lopsided score, McGraw felt that the Irish could have played better against the Crusaders in that meeting.
"We didn't play that well against them last year," said McGraw. "They came here and it was a very good game."
"They're good fundamentally sound, good shooters," said McGraw. "We feel that we need to play with a little more intensity at least than we have been."
All Sports Stories for Friday, November 17, 2000
