New Era Begins for Queen Bees

The 2005 off-season has seen the St. Ambrose Queen Bees go through many changes, none bigger than the hiring of first-year coach Amy Eagan, who comes to SAU from Quincy University, and will make her head coaching debut November 2nd, in SAU's opening game at McKendree in Lebanon, Illinois.

Eagan takes over a team in transition. The Queen Bees finished 17-16 last year, finishing in fifth place in the Midwest Classic Conference with a 7-7 conference record. Eagan will try to energize an SAU program that is steeped in tradition, never having had a losing season in the program's twenty-nine year history.

"One of the reasons I really wanted this job is because of the history of SAU women's basketball. They have a great tradition here, and I'm just glad to be a part of it.  Hopefully I can help that tradition continue," Eagan said.

One worry a team may have when making a coaching change is how the players will react and adjust to new offensive and defensive schemes. That adjustment seems to be coming along smoother than expected, which may be due to having an experienced team. The Queen Bees lost just two players from last season's squad and have six seniors and seven juniors on this year's roster.

"Practice has gone well so far this season. The kids are really receptive to what's going on, and they're catching on pretty fast," said Eagan. "We have a lot of things we need to work on before the season starts, but the biggest thing for us is to get more repetitions and get more comfortable with the system."

The Queen Bees will need to catch on fast if they're going to compete for the top spot in what is once again a competitive Midwest Classic Conference. SAU was picked to finish sixth in the conference in the MCC preseason poll.

"Pre-season rankings are simply that. No one has played a game and nobody has proven where they should be," said Eagan. "We just have to go out and compete every night and see where we finish."

SAU hopes to be well rested throughout the year with many players contributing, cutting down on the player's fatigue late in the games, which was one of the concerns on last season's team.

"Our depth is going to be one of our biggest strengths this year, as well as our athleticism. I think we have ten to twelve players that can give us quality minutes every night," Eagan said.

The Queen Bees are expecting a lot out of their upperclassmen, led by their leading returning scorer Jennifer Goetz, who averaged a double-double last year with 19.2 points and 10.8 rebounds per game. Goetz begins the 2005-06 season only eleven points away from 1,000 for her career through just two full seasons.

Fellow junior Cathy Mangan is also expected to see significant minutes this year. She ended last season on a sour note, missing the final four games of the season due to a broken thumb. She'll be back at full strength this season, and hopes to improve on last year's averages of 9.8 points, 4.6 rebounds and 2.3 assists per contest.

"Jennifer, who was an All-American Honorable Mention selection last season and Cathy, who was named to the All-Conference team will obviously be two of our go to players, but, I think we have five or six kids that can be impact players and step up on any given night," Eagan said.

Seniors Ali Rorah, Jody Wulff and Jena Zientek will also be looked at to contribute on a nightly basis. Rorah is coming off a season where she averaged 6.3 points and 4.7 rebounds, while Wulff scored six points a game, and also averaged 3.3 rebounds and 1.6 steals. Zientek has greatly improved her play over the off-season and will be looked upon to be a key leader on the team and contribute a lot more.

Junior Ashlie Maher and sophomore Jill Sweeney will also look to build on their successful seasons from last year and both should give the Queen Bees an outside shooting advantage. The duo averaged 4.0 and 4.4 points, respectively, last year.

SAU's outside shooting will be given an even bigger boost this year with the additions of Heather Overmyer, who transfers from Black Hawk College, and Casey Breitbach, a sharpshooter from Dubuque Hempstead, who joins the Queen Bees for her first season of collegiate basketball.

"Casey and Heather will bring their ability to shoot the ball from the perimeter and they both have good knowledge of the game," Eagan said.

Many players have worked hard at improving their game over the summer. None more than Candace LaFlora and Johnna Gamble. LaFlora should see an increase in minutes from last season, while Gamble, who led the team in field goal percentage with 56%, will be even more of a force in the post.

Jenn Dvorak and Becky Spears will be expected to give the Queen Bees quality minutes off the bench, while Sarah Dentlinger and Katie Calhoun will also be looked at to contribute.

The Queen Bees are hoping to get back to the NAIA National Tournament this season, after a one-year hiatus, but with a new coach and a new offense, they'll try to take this season one step at a time.

"I think our team can go as far as they want to go. They want to win and it's showing in the way that they practice," said Eagan, "A lot of our success will depend on how soon they catch on to things and how well the players develop throughout the year."

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