RAPID CITY, S.D. --- The South Dakota Mines women's basketball team will get the 2020-21 season started with a pair of games in Denver, Colorado this weekend. On Friday the Hardrockers will face off against Colorado School of Mines and then they turn around and play Regis University on Saturday.
The Hardrockers will look to build on a successful 2019-20 season which saw them make the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference playoffs.
Returning for the Rockers this season are guards
Ryan Weiss (R-JR Ames, IA),
Anna Combalia (JR Barcelona, Spain),
Michaela Shaklee (SR Arvada, CO), and
Francesca Facchini (SR Genova, Italy). Forwards returning will be
Naomi Hidalgo (SO Greeley, CO), and
Melissa Johnstone (JR Flower Mound, TX).
Weiss is the leading scorer returning averaging 16.9 points per game last year and Hidalgo cashed in for almost seven a game along with 4.2 rebounds.
New to the Hardrockers lineup this year are guards
Bailey Johnson (SO Rapid City, SD),
Maggie Smith (FR Cheney, WA),
Madelyn Heiser (FR Green River, WY), and
Kaydin Davis (FR Buffalo, WY). Forwards will include
Sydnee Durtsche (FR Loveland, CO),
Juneau Jones (SO Rapid City, SD), and
Makenna Bodette (SO Colorado Springs, CO).
"We've signed seven new Hardrockers to this year's team. There are a lot of new faces along with a few familiar ones," said Hardrocker women's basketball head coach
Jeri Jacobson. "Nobody else in the conference graduated players like we did. A lot of the programs have some good players returning so it's going to be tough. Mesa will be good, Western Colorado return a lot of players along with Westminster College – and Colorado School of Mines returns all their starters. It will definitely be a tough league this year."
Looking at the Orediggers, they've had three games postponed so far this season. They did compete against MSU Denver on Nov. 28 and posted a 75-49 win.
CSM brings back 11 players from last year's roster. The Oredigger trio of
Denali Pinto,
Sammy Van Sickle and
Courtney Stanton were tabbed as RMAC Preseason Players to Watch. Pinto returns as the defending RMAC Player of the Year after leading the conference in scoring last season at 19.9 points per game – good enough for the program record in total points and points per game. She was also named the RMAC Academic Player of the Year and won the RMAC Summit Award. Van Sickle enters the 2020-21 campaign after claiming RMAC All-Tournament honors last season. She put up 8.8 points and grabbed 8.3 rebounds per game which were complimented by 28 blocks and 42 steals.
Courtney Stanton was named Honorable Mention All-RMAC in 2019-20 as a junior after averaging 11.2 points and 4.7 rebounds per contest.
Ashley Steffeck,
McKale Grant,
Loralee Stock,
Raven Herrera,
Liz Holter,
Heaven McKinley,
Shelby Nichols and
Megan Van de Graaf return as well.
The game is slated for a 4 p.m. start. No fans are allowed at the venue but the game will be streamed live on the Hardrocker Network at:
https://portal.stretchinternet.com/sdsmt/ .
Regis' 2020-21 season opener was also on Friday evening. As previously stated, it was played at MSU Denver and resulted in 78-72 loss for the Rangers. Regis also played an exhibition at NCAA Division I Colorado State on Nov. 25 where the Rangers fell by a score of 111-64.
The Rangers were led by Erin Fry who topped all scorers with 27 points. Veteran forward Whitney Jacob chipped in 23 points. Only three other Regis players registered points in the game. On the bright side, Fry and Jacob also made it two double-doubles thanks to 10 rebounds and 13 rebounds, respectively. Also stated above was the Rangers sub-33 shooting percentage. However, the biggest difference maker was a mark of 57.7 percent at the free-throw line where Regis missed 11 free throws.
The game is slated for a 2 p.m. start. No fans are allowed at the venue but the game will be streamed live on the Hardrocker Network at:
https://portal.stretchinternet.com/sdsmt/ .
