North Dakota State Women Travel to Minnesota, Host Ball State And Denver

Courtesy: NDSU Athletic Media Relations

Release: November 23, 2009

	Women's College Basketball Schedule (Nov. 23-29, 2009)
	NDSU Women's Basketball Release (11-23-09)
	Summit League WBB Release (11-24-09)

Courtesy: Bob Nelson, NDSU

Inger Hodgson and North Dakota State travel to Minnesota on Tuesday, then host Ball State on Friday and Denver on Sunday.

Busy week is on tap for North Dakota State University (1-2, 0-0 Summit League) ... The Bison play the University of Minnesota (3-1, 0-0 Big Ten) at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 24, in Williams Arena ... NDSU lost 68-60 to Wyoming on Nov. 18, while the Gophers won the Subway Classic with wins over Illinois-Chicago and Colorado on Nov. 21-22 ... The lone loss for Minnesota was 60-59 at Utah ... North Dakota State hosts Ball State (1-2, 0-0 MAC) at 5 p.m. Friday, Nov. 27, at the Bison Sports Arena ... The Cardinals won the Mid-American Conference and advanced to the second round of the NCAA tournament last year after upsetting Tennessee in the opening round ... Ball State hosts Valparasio on Nov. 24 ... North Dakota State is scheduled to host Denver (1-1, 0-0 Sun Belt) at 2 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 29, at the Bison Sports Arena ... The Pioneers play at Montana on Nov. 24.

The Series: This will be the sixth meeting between North Dakota State and Minnesota ... The Gophers lead the series 4-1 ... Minnesota won 68-56 before 4,828 fans at Williams Arena last season ... Abby Plucker scored 14 points and Jill Zaruba pulled down seven rebounds for the Bison ... This will be the second meeting between North Dakota State and Ball State ... The Cardinals defeated NDSU 65-54 in the finals of the 2005 Ball State Credit Union Classic in Muncie ... This will be the fifth meeting between North Dakota State and Denver ... The Bison lead the series 3-1 ... The Pioneers defeated NDSU 56-49 last season in Denver ... Jerri Penley scored 15 points and grabbed 14 rebounds for NDSU.

Bison On Radio: WDAY 970 AM of Fargo is the flagship station of the Bison Radio Network ... Stations on the Bison Radio Network for the basketball season include WDAY-AM 970 (Fargo), KQLX-FM 106.1 (Lisbon/select games) and KPOK-AM 1340 (Bowman) ... Scott Miller, WDAY 970 AM sports director, will call the play-by-play, and Jeremy Jorgenson, NDSU director of athletic broadcasting, will provide the color analysis ... There is a 20 minute-pregame and a 20-minute postgame ... Miller hosts Bison Feedback featuring women’s basketball coach Carolyn DeHoff and men’s basketball coach Saul Phillips on Tuesdays throughout the season ... Game audio and Bison Feedback are free and available on GoBison.com.

GoBison.com Webcasts/Live Stats: Live stats and live audio will be available on GoBison.com ... Games Friday and Sunday will be available by subscription to GoBison.com All Access starting at $7.95 or by subscription to SummitTV on TheSummitLeague.org starting at $19.95.

Bison Fast Break: North Dakota State 6-foot-5 freshman Janae Burich (Roseville, Minn.) continued her strong start at the collegiate level against Wyoming (11-20-09) ... Burich netted a game-high 19 points, had a season-high six rebounds and blocked two shots in the 68-60 loss to the Cowgirls ... Burich is averaging 14.3 points, 5 rebounds and 2 blocked shots per game ... She is hitting 65.2 percent from the field ... Questions about the health of 5-11 redshirt sophomore Abby Plucker (Parker, S.D.) were quickly answered ... Plucker tied a career-high with 20 points and added eight rebounds in the 64-62 win at UNI (11-13-09) ... Over the first two games, Plucker averaged 15 points and 6 rebounds, hitting 45.8 percent (11-24) from the field and 85.7 (6-7) percent from the free throw line ... Plucker played in only nine games last year before being sideline by a shoulder injury at Denver (12-15-08) ... Sophomore Katie Birkel (Lincoln, Neb.) not only hit the game-winning jumper with 46 seconds left at UNI, but also came up with a steal with 4 seconds remaining ... Birkel tied a career-high with four steals at DePaul ... Birkel tied a career-high with eight rebounds vs. Wyoming ... Six-foot senior Ashley Samuelson (Underwood, Minn.) averaged 13 points, 5.5 rebounds and a team-high 3 assists per game during the opening weekend ... Former Summit League Player of the Year Lisa Bue is playing pro basketball in Finland.

NDSU Third in Summit Preseason Poll, Hodgson First Team: For the second straight season, South Dakota State was tabbed as the favorite to win the 2009-10 Summit League Women’s Basketball Championship as selected by the annual preseason poll of league coaches, SIDs and media ... The Jackrabbits placed four players on the Preseason All-League Second Team and collected all but two first-place votes ... Oakland placed second in the poll with one first-place vote, while North Dakota State held down the third slot ... Oral Roberts garnered the other first-place vote and was fourth, followed by IPFW in fifth, just two points ahead of IUPUI, who placed sixth. UMKC, Western Illinois, Southern Utah and Centenary rounded out the poll ... UMKC guard Chazny Morris was named the Preseason Player of the Year ... Morris was joined on the first team by North Dakota State guard Inger Hodgson, IPFW guard Chelsey Jackson, Oakland guard Melissa Jeltema, Oral Roberts guard/forward Janae Voelker and IUPUI center Julia Whitted ... Selected third, the Bison return all-league second team member Hodgson and her 12.6 ppg to the lineup, along with all-newcomer team selection guard Katie Birkel, who averaged 10 points and 3.1 assists last season .. Second-year head coach Carolyn DeHoff also welcomes back forward Abby Plucker, the team’s leading scorer at 14.2 ppg through her first nine games before an injury ended her season.

Bison In The Summit League: North Dakota State was well represented in final 2009 Summit League statistics (league games only) ... Individually in the top 10, Inger Hodgson was tied for 1st in three-pointers made (2.4 avg.), 4th in steals (2 spg), 2nd in three-point shooting (.473, 44-93), 6th in scoring (14.3 ppg), 7th in field goal shooting (.478, 88-184) and tied for 7th in assists (3.2 apg); Jerri Penley was 1st in field goal shooting (.560, 61-109), 3rd in blocked shots (2.2 bpg) and 9th in rebounding (6.7 rpg); Katie Birkel was 9th in assists (3.1 apg), and Jill Zaruba was 2nd in free throw shooting (.878, 43-49) ... Team-wise (top three), the Bison were 1st in field goal percentage defense (.348, 358-1029); 2nd in field goal shooting (.432, 387-896) and free throw shooting (.752, 258-343), and 3rd in scoring defense (58.6 ppg), scoring margin (+2.8 ppg) and blocked shots (4.2 bpg).

North Dakota State Signs Four: North Dakota State University head women’s basketball coach Carolyn DeHoff announced that 5-foot-11 forward Ali Browning (Iowa City, Iowa/Regina H.S.); 6-2 center Miki Stephenson (Moorhead, Minn./Moorhead H.S.); 5-7 point guard Kelsey Peltier (Dunseith, N.D./Bottineau H.S.), and 6-foot forward Lauren Dudenhoeffer (Lee’s Summit, Mo./North H.S.) have signed national letters of intent to play basketball and continue their education at NDSU.

Bison Against The Nationally-Ranked: North Dakota State is 0-6 vs. nationally-ranked teams since making the move from NCAA Division II to Divison I in 2004-05 (L 59-76 at #18 New Mexico, 12-10-06; L 63-93 at #25 Middle Tennessee, 1-2-07; L 70-79 at #12 Minnesota, 1-26-07; L 48-64 at #20 South Dakota State, 1-24-09; L 36-70 vs. #18/22 South Dakota State, 2-21-09; L 65-77 vs. #17/25 Depaul, 11-15-09).

The DeHoff File: Carolyn DeHoff (Arizona State, ‘91) is in her second year as head coach of the Bison ... DeHoff has a 17-15 record including 12-6 in The Summit League ... She recorded her first win against Valley City State on Nov. 21 ... DeHoff became the ninth head women’s basketball coach in the program’s 45-year history on April 11, 2008 ... DeHoff was the associate head coach in 2007-08 on Elaine Elliott’s Utah staff ... The Utes finished 27-5 overall and won the Mountain West Conference regular season championship with a 16-0 record ... Utah lost in the first round of the 2008 NCAA tournament ... Her duties at Utah included coordinating recruiting efforts, point guard development, organization and planning of the schedule, coordination of academic affairs and directing summer camps ... During her stay in Salt Lake City, the Utes won 123 games, three regular season conference championships and one MWC tournament title ... Utah made three trips to the NCAA tournament including an Elite Eight berth in 2006 and a WNIT appearance in 2007. The Utes also had a pair of WNBA first round draft picks, along with second round pick in this year’s draft ... Her 17-year coaching resume includes a five-year stop at Weber State. The Wildcats went from a sub-.500 program to a back-to-back NCAA tournament participant ... Weber State won consecutive Big Sky titles and posted back-to-back 20 win seasons ... Prior to Weber State, DeHoff was the top assistant at Wyoming for seven seasons and also was an assistant coach at Coronado High School in Scottsdale, Ariz ... A standout high school player at Cheyenne (Wyo.) East, DeHoff was a Street & Smith’s All-America her senior year ... She played at Arizona State University from 1987-90, where she was a captain ... A native of Cheyenne, DeHoff graduated from Arizona State in 1991 with a bachelor’s degree in exercise science and physical education ... She was inducted into her high school athletic hall of fame in September 2008.