The unofficial online home for fans of the Old Dominion University Monarchs. Part of Collegiate Sports Nation (CSN).

This Friday the ODU Monarchs will host the Campbell Camels in the season opener for women's basketball. This is a return game where ODU opened last season on the road, winning 83-59. Depsite the opening day loss, the Camels finished the 2018-19 season going 23-13. They even had some postseason success. They lost in the championship game in the Big South tournament. And then they lost in the semifinal game of the Women's Basketball Invitational. Most coaches will tell you that any type of postseason play is a good thing because it helps a team build for the next season. That is certainly what fourth year head coach Ronny Fisher has been promoting this offseason.

Like ODU, the Camels had a young team last season. They have always been known as a defensive first team. This season they have played one game where they won 122-56 against St Andrews University. St Andrews is a member of the NAIA and does not count in the RPI rankings. For Campbell the game counts as a win to their season total. For St Andrews it is viewed as an exhibition game and doesn't count in the win/loss total.

(Side note: I really wish that the NCAA would stop allowing games like this to be scheduled. Games like this make the stats lopsided and usually stand as outliers over the course of the season.)

I am not sure what you can take away from the actual game, but in a blowout game over half of the team's shots were from beyond the arc. So I suspect lots of three ball attempts from Campbell.

Campbell's Starting Five

#0 Kianna Speight Grad G 5'8" , last played at Davidson
#11 ShyAnne Tuelle So G 5'10"
#10 Hayley Barber Sr G 5'7"
#25 Luana Serranho So G 5'6"
#40 Lauren McNamara-Clement Jr F 6'2"

#1 Faith Price Fr G 5'8"
#44 Svenia Nurenberg Fr F 5'11"
#3 Micaila Coleman Jr G 5'10"
#14 Brittany Staves Fr F 6'0"

This is a team that last year played 9-10 players deep. They do like to use their bench. Last season the Camels averaged 59.5 ppg. They doubled that offensive output in this "exhibition" game. The team lost their leading rebounder from last due to gradation. The Camels are returning their top two leading scorers (Barber and Tuelle) from last season. Both averaged 9.1 ppg. Speight averaged 10.0 games last season at Davidson, was a good 3 point shooter and known for steals on defense. She would have lead Campbell in all three categories last season. Graduate students are rare in women’s basketball. But they can help a program because they are more advanced and prepared than true college freshmen or juco place.

Since Camel goes with a four guard line-up, they probably like to run the floor. This could turn into a track match. ODU should have the height and both sides should let the three’s fly.

This year ODU will have a new Kids Zone section where a bounce house and face painting will be located in section 108 before the game and at halftime. Also the entire team will be around for autographs after the game.

Time to have some fun!

(11-07-2019 09:54 PM)Aviewfromthestands2 Wrote:  This Friday the ODU Monarchs will host the Campbell Camels in the season opener for women's basketball. This is a return game where ODU opened last season on the road, winning 83-59. Depsite the opening day loss, the Camels finished the 2018-19 season going 23-13. They even had some postseason success. They lost in the championship game in the Big South tournament. And then they lost in the semifinal game of the Women's Basketball Invitational. Most coaches will tell you that any type of postseason play is a good thing because it helps a team build for the next season. That is certainly what fourth year head coach Ronny Fisher has been promoting this offseason.

Like ODU, the Camels had a young team last season. They have always been known as a defensive first team. This season they have played one game where they won 122-56 against St Andrews University. St Andrews is a member of the NAIA and does not count in the RPI rankings. For Campbell the game counts as a win to their season total. For St Andrews it is viewed as an exhibition game and doesn't count in the win/loss total.

(Side note: I really wish that the NCAA would stop allowing games like this to be scheduled. Games like this make the stats lopsided and usually stand as outliers over the course of the season.)

I am not sure what you can take away from the actual game, but in a blowout game over half of the team's shots were from beyond the arc. So I suspect lots of three ball attempts from Campbell.

Campbell's Starting Five

#0 Kianna Speight Grad G 5'8" , last played at Davidson
#11 ShyAnne Tuelle So G 5'10"
#10 Hayley Barber Sr G 5'7"
#25 Luana Serranho So G 5'6"
#40 Lauren McNamara-Clement Jr F 6'2"

#1 Faith Price Fr G 5'8"
#44 Svenia Nurenberg Fr F 5'11"
#3 Micaila Coleman Jr G 5'10"
#14 Brittany Staves Fr F 6'0"

This is a team that last year played 9-10 players deep. They do like to use their bench. Last season the Camels averaged 59.5 ppg. They doubled that offensive output in this "exhibition" game. The team lost their leading rebounder from last due to gradation. The Camels are returning their top two leading scorers (Barber and Tuelle) from last season. Both averaged 9.1 ppg. Speight averaged 10.0 games last season at Davidson, was a good 3 point shooter and known for steals on defense. She would have lead Campbell in all three categories last season. Graduate students are rare in women’s basketball. But they can help a program because they are more advanced and prepared than true college freshmen or juco place.

Since Camel goes with a four guard line-up, they probably like to run the floor. This could turn into a track match. ODU should have the height and both sides should let the three’s fly.

This year ODU will have a new Kids Zone section where a bounce house and face painting will be located in section 108 before the game and at halftime. Also the entire team will be around for autographs after the game.

Time to have some fun!

Looking forward to the season and the new players. I suspect this will be a fairly easy win for the Monarchs, but the road gets a bit more difficult quickly. Can’t wait to see what’s ahead.

Final score. ODU 59, Campbell 44. It was closer than I thought. At the half ODU was ahead 27-22. The first half showed the hallmarks of ODU. Defense and free throw shooting Wait...yes. If you look at the stats in the first half everything was pretty even but the difference maker is that ODU went 6-for-8 compared to Campbell's 1-for4. A 75% percent from the charity stripe line.....that is fantastic and very encouraging. ODU won this game despite Victoria Morris not scoring any point in 23 minutes. Which is rare for her. This might be the first time she didn't score any points in any college game she has ever played in.

16 points, 8 boards for Amari Young and Ajah Wayne. 12 points and 7 boards for Taylor Edwards. But for me, I really enjoyed watching German freshman Marie Reichert play. 5 offensive boards and 5 blocks (to go along with 4 points) shows that she isn't afraid to mix it up down low. You don't usually see that type of aggressiveness from a freshman.

All in all, it wasn't the type of game that I was expecting to see. But it was a nice defensive battle with ODU having 11 steals. (5 by Young) Next game against Auburn on the road. That is going to be a battle...

The game was won by ODU with steals and blocks. We missed so many shots at the rim. I thought the Fighting Camels played solid D and didn't take as many 3s as you expect for a smaller team. They ran some nice backdoor cuts. Their #10 was a good little player, we didn't open the lead till she had to sit with 4 fours. Marie Riechert, looks to be a player. Nice freshman outing as a Monarch.