Green Bay Opens Season Ranked 24th in Coaches Poll

Green Bay, fresh off a 34-2 season and Sweet 16 appearance in last year’s NCAA Tournament, begins the 2011-12 women’s basketball season ranked 24^th in the preseason USA Today/ESPN Coaches poll. This marks the first time in Green Bay’s illustrious 38-year women’s basketball history it has been ranked to start the season.

On Oct. 19, the 24^th-ranked Phoenix were announced as the preseason favorites in the Horizon League in a poll comprised of league coaches, SIDs and media members. Green Bay returns four players with starting experience from last season’s squad, including 2010-11 All-League Second Team selection, Julie Wojta. The 6’0” senior is the leading returnee for Green Bay in points (13.6 ppg.), rebounds (7.4 rpg.), assists (3.6 apg.), steals (81) and blocks (18). Wojta was voted onto the 2011-12 Preseason Horizon League First Team and received the most first-place votes (15) of any player in the conference.

Also back for the Phoenix are junior Adrian Ritchie, second on the team last season with 48 three-point field goals, junior Lydia Bauer, averaged 7.1 points per game last season, junior Sarah Eichler, started all 36 games last season and senior Hannah Quilling, passed out 121 assists last season and almost had a 2:1 assist-to-turnover ratio.

The returning Green Bay players will look to match a record-setting season last year that saw the team win a school-record 34 games and finish a program-best ninth in the final USA Today/ESPN Coaches Poll. Green Bay, entering its fifth-season coached by Matt Bollant who is 68-4 in regular season Horizon League contests, will have to replace Co-Horizon League Players of the Year Kayla Tetschlag and Celeste Hoewisch who both graduated in the offseason.

Baylor, who knocked Green Bay out of the NCAA Tournament in the Sweet 16 last season, starts the 2011-12 season ranked No. 1. Milwaukee will get a crack at the top-ranked Bears on Thursday, Dec. 8 when the Panthers travel to Waco, Texas to face Baylor in a game scheduled to tip-off at 8 p.m. ET.

Milwaukee has two more non-conference games against ranked opponents. On the same road trip that takes them to Baylor, the Panthers will also play at 16^th-ranked Oklahoma on Sunday, Dec. 11 at 3 p.m. ET. Milwaukee also hosts 25^th-ranked Michigan State on Tuesday, Nov. 22 at 8 p.m. ET.

The women’s basketball regular season tips off on Friday, Nov. 11.