Women's Basketball hosts William Woods in Exhibition Opener

Thursday, October 27

Carbondale, Ill.

6 PM

Southern Illinois University

William Woods (Exhibition)

10/26/2016 | 5:24:00 | Women's Basketball

CARBONDALE, Ill. -- The Saluki women's basketball team will open the 2016-17 season with an exhibition contest against William Woods (Mo.) Thursday at 6 p.m. inside the SIU Arena.

TEAM FACTS
Southern Illinois Salukis (0-0, 0-0 MVC)
Head Coach: Cindy Stein • Fourth Season • 324-257 (20th season) • 42-51 at SIU

William Woods Owls (0-0, 0-0 AMC)
Head Coach: Dan Chapla • 8^th season

ON-THE-AIR
Web Stream: ESPN3
Play-by-Play: Danny Valle, Kelly Burke

PROMOTIONS
Fans are invited to come to the game in costume to Trick-or-Treat around the SIU Arena concourse. Children 12 and under that come dressed in a costume will be admitted free of charge. The Salukis will also be signing schedule posters at the conclusion of tomorrow night's contest.

FOR STARTERS
The Salukis return eight letterwinners from a season ago, including leading scorer and preseason All-MVC selection Rishonda Napier. SIU finished the 2015-16 campaign with a 20-13 record and a 12-6 mark in Valley play as Southern posted a 20-win season for the first time in nine years and made its first postseason appearance since 2007. Napier could make a run at SIU's all-time scoring record. The Burbank, Calif. native is currently eighth on the all-time list with 1,323 points and needs 457 points to surpass her former teammate and current record holder Cartaesha Macklin (1,779). Southern also welcomes a talented freshmen class, as well as redshirt freshman Tiajaney Hawkins, who returns to the Salukis after having to medically redshirt last season.

SCOUTING THE OWLS
The Owls are coming off a 21-11 season, including a 16-8 record in American Midwest Conference action. The Owls advanced to the NAIA Division I Women's Basketball National Championship for the eight-straight season a year ago, and William Woods hasn't missed the national tournament since 2008. The Owls lost their top rebounder and top scorer from last year's team, but Kennedy Volkart, who finished second in both scoring and rebounding, returns.

PRESEASON POLL
SIU was one of four teams to earn 300-plus points in the poll, with the Drake Bulldogs and Preseason Player of the Year guard Lizzy Wendell earning top billing. The Bulldogs received 34 out of 38 first-place votes and 392 total points in the annual survey of the league's coaches, sports information directors and media members. Northern Iowa garnered four first place votes and 317 points, while Missouri State was right behind the Panthers with a pair of first place votes and 313 points. The Salukis tallied 306 points, and it marks the first time in 18 years (1996-97, 1997-98) that SIU has been picked in the top-half of the annual poll in back-to-back seasons.

EARLY ACCOLADES FOR NAPIER
Napier was one of five selected to Preseason All-MVC team. An All-MVC first-team selection a year ago, Napier finished in the top-10 in the MVC in scoring (15.5, 6th) and assists (3.5, 5th), and joins Rangie Bessard (Wichita State), Caitlyn Ingle (Drake), Madison Weekly (UNI) and Lizzy Wendell (Drake) on the preseason all-conference squad.

FAMILIAR FACES
The Salukis return eight letterwinners and three starters from last season's 20-win squad. SIU has three seniors (Rishonda Napier, Carlie Corrigan, Kim Nebo), two juniors (Kylie Giebelhausen, Celina VanHyfte) and three sophomores (Ashley Hummel, Tiajaney Hawkins, Olivia Bowling) on the roster in addition to five freshmen. (Brittney Patrick, Caitlyn Claussen, Lauren Hartman, Kristen Nelson, Nicole Martin)

MVC LETTERWINNERS RETURNING/STARTERS RETURNING
Bradley: 8/3
Drake: 8/4
Evansville: 8/3
Illinois St.: 7/2
Indiana St. 6/2
Loyola: 3/0
Missouri St.: 9/2
Northern Iowa: 7/1
Southern Illinois: 8/3
Wichita State: 10/5

NAPIER, MACKLIN, PIERRE NAMED FIRST-TEAM ALL-MVC
Cartaesha Macklin, Dyana Pierre and Rishonda Napier earned 2016 All-Missouri Valley Conference First-Team honors last season, marking the first time since the 1994-95 season that SIU has had three earn All-MVC honors in the same season and the first time in program history that the Salukis have had three earn First-Team All-MVC honors.

GIEBELHAUSEN'S BLOCK PARTY
Giebelhausen's 77 career blocks are the eight-most in school history, and the junior guard needs just five blocks to climb into the top-five in that category. The East Peoria, Ill., native figures to have plenty of opportunities, as she averaged the seventh-most minutes per game (32.7) in the MVC last season and averaged 1.3 blocks per contest.

NAPIER FROM THREE
Rishonda Napier needs to make 30 three-pointers this season to pass Teri Oliver (2009-12) for the most in a career in school history. Napier has made 206 in her three seasons wearing the Maroon and White, and trails Oliver, who sank 235 from beyond the arc while a Saluki. Napier ended the 2015-16 season by making seven three-pointers in the loss to Western Illinois in the first round of the Women's Basketball Invitational, tied for the most in a single-game in program history.

CAPTAINS
Rishonda Napier, Kylie Giebelhausen and Carlie Corrigan will serve as captains for the 2016-17 Salukis. Corrigan earned the team's Most Improved Award last season after appearing in all 33 games for the Dawgs, including six starts, and averaged 16.3 minutes and 4.8 points per game. She scored in double figures four times this season, having done so once in her previous two seasons combined. She poured in a career-high 12 points on 5-of-7 shooting from the field in SIU's 76-64 win over Indiana State on Jan. 29.

NON-CONFERENCE SLATE
The 2016-17 Southern Illinois women's basketball team will have plenty of chances early on to build its postseason resume against top competition. The Salukis will play an 11-game non-conference schedule that features five teams that made the postseason a year ago, beginning at Oklahoma on Nov. 13.

FOLLOW US
The official Twitter of Saluki women's basketball is @SIU_WBasketball. Fans are encouraged to follow for in-game updates as well as team news. For coverage of all 18 SIU teams, follow @SIUSalukis.