Brooke Demetre (left), Kiki Iriafen, Jzaniya Haarriel and Fran Belibi at the 3x3 tournament in May. (Stanford Athletics)
With an abundance of talent on its 14-player roster, the Stanford women’s basketball team has high hopes for the coming season.
Everyone is available to practice, so the team is off
to a great start, said associate head coach Kate Paye in a recent phone
interview.
Thirteen players are on campus. The fourth,
sophomore guard Elena Bosgana, is in her native Greece playing for her
country’s U20 team in July.
Another Greek, freshman guard Stavi Papadaki, had a
chance to play for Greece’s U18 team but
made the difficult decision to come to Stanford to adjust to all that is new,
Kate said.
As usual, returning players are welcoming the
newcomers and helping them get adjusted. Besides Stavi, those newcomers are guards
Indya Niver and Talana Lepolo along with forward Lauren Betts.
Power
outage cancels classes
One glitch came June 21 when a fire near Edgewood
Park between San Carlos and Redwood City resulted in a power outage that left
much of the campus in the dark for several days and led to cancellation of
classes through June 27.
It “made for an unusual week,” Kate said. The girls
basketball day camp was cancelled, but the elite camp continued on a limited
basis. One plus for no classes was that Stanford players could work at the camp
all day.
Even before summer school started June 20, several
players besides Elena were involved in competitions.
Players
compete on national teams
Senior forward Fran Belibi and three of the
sophomores, forward Kiki Iriafen and guards Brooke Demetre and Jzaniya Harriel,
were on USA Basketball’s 3x3 team May 12 to 16 at the Women’s Basketball Hall
of Fame in Springfield, Mass., and made it to the semifinals.
Senior guard Hannah Jump played for her native
England in the FIBA 3x3 Europe Cup qualifiers in Romania in early June. Indya was
on the US National U18 team that won the gold.
Jeannette
named to new position
In another recent development, Jeanette Pohlen, ’11,
was named to the new position of director of player development after serving
as a coaching intern last season.
Among other things, she will assume some of the
duties of women’s basketball administrator Amy Tucker, who has fully retired.
She also will focus on alumni relations with former
SWBB players, the team’s community service and off-court support for present
players. Yet another duty will be “serving as
a liaison with a number of other departments, on campus and beyond,”
Stanford Athletics reported.
Kate said she’ll be “another resource
for the team. She understands Stanford,” and the players respect her.
More students wanted at games
One of the program’s goals for the
coming season is greater student attendance. Therefore, lower level sections
14-16 at the north end of Maples will be reserved for students.
Some season ticket holders will have
to move, but “the role students play in creating a home court advantage for our
team and enhancing the game day atmosphere for all attendees inside Maples
Pavilion is critical,” Tara wrote in a message to season ticket holders.
Also looking ahead, the coaches
foresee playing in a somewhat different way to use the front court more and “take
advantage of (our) size,” Kate said.
Bright future foreseen
The team has some outstanding veteran
forwards along with 6’7” Lauren, who moves well and is “eager to learn,” Kate
said.
Thus the coaches have to figure out
“how to take advantage of our strengths … We have great players on our team,”
Kate said.
“We expect to have a championship
season,” she concluded.
