Lady Monarchs again favored to reign supreme

WASHINGTON

When your team has won 17 championships in a row, folks tend to believe No. 18 might be yours too.

No matter how Old Dominion coach Wendy Larry stresses to folks that only three upperclassmen remain from last year's 31-5 team that advanced to the Sweet 16 and won an unprecedented 17th CAA tournament title, the Lady Monarchs are picked to win again. Larry fended an array of questions at the CAA's media day at ESPNZONE on Wednesday about what it's like to have 17 rings just as she had the year before on how it felt to own 16.

"It's not something we really talk about," was her canned response.

The vote from the league's coaches, sports information directors and selected media picked VCU, runner-up in the CAA title game last winter, second, and James Madison, host of this year's tournament, third.

Drexel, led by the conference's top scorer from last year, Gabriela Marginean, was tapped to finish fourth. The 6-foot-1 junior forward is this year's preseason Player of the Year after averaging 19 points last season.

ODU senior Tiffany Green, who led the league in blocks and averaged 11.4 points and 7.6 rebounds, received first-team honors along with JMU point guard Dawn Evans, UNC Wilmington forward Brittany Blackwell and VCU's Quanitra Hollingsworth.

ODU senior Jazzmin Walters and junior Jessica Canady were named to the second team.

On the mend

Hollingsworth received the preseason honor despite missing the final nine games of the Rams' season due to a ruptured right Achilles' tendon. The Great Bridge High School graduate, who watched her team's run to the title game on crutches, has been cleared to play, said Rams coach Beth Cunningham.

"She's much further along than we expected," said Cunningham, noting Hollingsworth has yet to see any contact. "She's not hesitant on it, but she is rusty. It will take her some time to get her timing back."

Also healing is ODU freshman JoNiquia Guilford, who went down in the first hour of Friday's first practice during a non-contact drill. The Wilson High School graduate has a slight tear in her right medial collateral ligament, but will not require surgery, Larry said. The swelling remains in Guilford's right knee, and no timetable has been set for her return to practice.

And on the out-for-the-season list: Katherine DeHenzel, expected to start at point guard for William and Mary, will spend the year rehabbing a torn anterior cruciate ligament.

Road trip

Elena Delle Donne wasn't at media day, but she was the talk of it. In case you're not a regular follower of the sport, Delle Donne came out of Delaware's Ursuline Academy as the top high school player in the nation and signed with UConn before deciding she was burned out from basketball after two days of practice over the summer with the Huskies. The 6-5 National Player of the Year, the subject of major stories in The Washington Post and The New York Times in the past week, is currently a non-scholarship volleyball player at Delaware, with rumors afloat about "what if" she considers playing basketball for the Blue Hens.

Meanwhile the Blue Hen volleyball team is stirring up support around the CAA, including several women's basketball teams. Ann Hancock said her UNCW team went as a group to see the Seahawks/Blue Hens game on Sept. 28.

"Everybody wanted to see her in person," Hancock said.

William and Mary coach Debbie Taylor said her team has expressed similar interest when the Blue Hens visit the Tribe on Nov. 1.