OVC Release
EVANSVILLE, Ind. - The Ohio Valley Conference held its annual men's and women's basketball media day today at the Ford Center in Evansville, Indiana. Eastern Illinois women's basketball was selected to finish 11
th in the women's basketball preseason poll released this morning. Senior guard
Grace Lennox also represents the team on the Preseason All-OVC team.
The Panthers finished last season 3-26 overall and 2-16 in the conference under first year head coach
Matt Bollant. EIU returns all five starters from last season and adds three new freshman and two transfers to the 2018-19 roster.
Lennox returns for a red-shirt season following a knee injury last year that sidelined her eight games into the season. Prior to the injury, Lennox averaged 15.4 points per game, 4.9 assists per game, and 3.9 rebounds per game. She is just five points away from being the 25th player in program history to score 1,000 points. She is also just 100 assists away from reaching 500 career assists milestone. Lennox was named to the 2016-17 All-OVC team and also received preseason All-OVC honors last year. She was fourth in the OVC averaging 16.3 points, 4.4 assists, and 1.9 steals per game in the 2016-17 season.
The Panthers welcome back sophomore
Karle Pace as a key returner for the 2018-19 season. Pace stepped up for EIU in the absence of Lennox last season. Pace led the team in conference play with 12.5 points per game. She scored a career best 31 points at Tennessee State, which was seven points shy of the single game scoring record. Pace earned her first OVC Freshman of the Week honors on Jan. 30 following her performance at TSU. She also set a career-high seven assists at SIUE and six rebounds at Belmont.
Seniors
Jalisha Smith,
Halle Stull, and
Carmen Tellez, juniors
Danielle Berry and
Jennifer Nehls, and sophomores
Grace McRae,
Taylor Steele, and
Camino Tellez all return for the Panthers this season. New additions for the 2018-19 roster include freshman
Abby Wahl,
Kira Arthofer, and
Jordyn Hughes. The Panthers also added
Damonique Miller a fifth year transfer out of Memphis and
Claudia Stan who is a two year transfer out of Vincennes.
Belmont received 20 of the first place votes and was selected to finish first in the OVC poll. UT Martin, Jacksonville State, and Morehead State round out the top four in the poll. Lennox is joined by nine other players on the 2018-19 Preseason All-OVC Team including Belmont's Darby Maggard who collected Preseason Player of the Year honors.
The Panthers will host Illinois Wesleyan on Thursday Nov. 1 for an exhibition match at 6 pm. The regular season and home opener for EIU will be on Tuesday Nov. 6 vs. Oakland City at 6 pm.
