April 14, 2008

LOGAN, Utah - Utah State's women's basketball team celebrated the 2007-08 season with its annual end of the year banquet held Friday, April 11 at The Skyroom Restaurant located on USU's campus. The evening featured dinner, award presentations, showing of the team highlight video, and speeches from the USU women's basketball coaching staff and several players from the team.

Utah State finished its fifth season since reinstatement and its third season in the Western Athletic Conference with an 9-20 overall record and a 5-11 ledger in WAC play. The Aggies, who were picked seventh in the preseason poll, finished seventh in the standings. USU was the seventh seed for the WAC Tournament, falling to second-seeded Boise, 61-47, in the quarterfinals.

Senior guard Taylor Richards was voted the team's Most Valuable Player after averaging 9.9 points and 4.3 rebounds per game, ranking tied for 15th in the WAC in scoring with classmate center Jenny Gross. Richards broke the career assists record as a junior and finished her career with 371 helpers, while she broke the career three-pointers made record this past season and recorded 91 overall. Richards also finished second on the USU career steals list with 172 and became the fifth player to score 1,000 points in a career as she tallied 1,138 points overall and finished third on the USU career scoring list.

Gross was named the Offensive Player of the Year, while the Defensive Player of the Year went to junior guard Danyelle Snelgro. Junior centers Ndoumbe Diop and Shawnta Pope earned the Most Improved Player awards and Richards received the Big Blue Scholarship award, which is given to a senior who best represents outstanding achievement in academic, athletics and community service.

2007-08 Utah State Women's Basketball Awards
Big Blue Scholarship Fund Award: Taylor Richards
Fan Appreciation Award: Bob and Cyd Zipf
Couldn't Have Done It Without You Award: Kristin Johnson
Excellence in the Classroom Award(s): LeeAnn Palo and Nicole Johnson
Strength and Conditioning Award: Taylor Richards and Ana Pares
Most Improved Player Award (s): Ndoumbe Diop and Shawnta Pope
Offensive Player of the Year: Jenny Gross
Defensive Player of the Year: Danyelle Snelgro
Spark Player Award: Jenny Gross
Team Player Award: Jenny Gross
Most Valuable Player Award: Taylor Richards