Nov. 5, 2009

LOGAN, Utah - TIP OFF - Utah State will play its first and only exhibition game against Montana Tech on Monday, Nov. 9 at 7 p.m. at the Dee Glenn Smith Spectrum. This is the second-straight season that the Aggies have played the Orediggers in an exhibition. Last season, Utah State opened the 2008-09 campaign with a 73-46 win. USU was led by forward Nicole Johnson who had two offensive and six defensive rebounds. In what was her first game as an Aggie, Nibley, Utah native, Lydia Whitehead had seven rebounds to go along with nine points. As a team, the Aggies out-rebounded the Orediggers, 41-33.

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THE OPPONENT- Montana Tech has already played two game this season and is a perfect 2-0. The Orediggers opened the season with a 77-65 win over Snow College before defeated Eastern Oregon, 65-60. Jessie DePell had a strong night for the Orediggers with 19 points, two steals and five assists.The Orediggers' stingy defense swapped 12 steals from the Mountaineers.

UP NEXT - After the Aggies take on Montana Tech, they begin the regular season against instate rival Utah on Friday, Nov. 13 at 7 p.m. The game can be seen on the CW30. This is the first meeting between the Aggies and the Utes since Utah defeated Utah State 70-38 in Salt Lake City on Dec. 15, 2007. The Utes hold a convincing 28-1 series advantage over the Aggies. Utah State's only win against Utah came on Jan. 22, 1972, 69-58.

READY FOR MY CLOSE UP - This season, Utah State will be on tv at least two times. The game against Utah on Nov. 13 will be on the CW30. Another game against an instate rival will also be on tv for Aggie fans to enjoy. USU's match up with BYU on Dec. 19 will also be on the CW30.

USU PICKED SEVENTH IN POLLS - Utah State women's basketball was selected seventh in both the Western Athletic Conference coaches poll and the media poll it was announced Tuesday by the league. Last season, the Aggies were picked sixth in the coaches poll and seventh in the media poll.

The Aggies received 24 points in the WAC coaches poll. Fresno State received 60 points and five first-place votes to beat out Louisiana Tech for first place. The Lady Techsters captured second place with 58 points and three first-place votes. Boise State took third place with 53 points, including one first-place vote. Idaho and New Mexico State tied for fourth place with 39 points. Hawai`i and San Jose State rounded out the poll tying for eighth place with 12 points.

In the media poll, Utah State was also chosen seventh with 72 points. Louisiana Tech, which shared the WAC regular-season title with Fresno State last season, was picked first with 180 points, earning 14 first-place votes. Fresno State was picked second with 167 points, gathering six first-place votes, followed by Boise State with 136 points and the final first-place vote. Idaho was selected fourth with 136 points, followed by Nevada in fifth with 104. New Mexico State was picked sixth with 100 points, followed by Utah State, Hawai`i (46) and San Jose State (26) finishing in eighth and ninth respectively.

Utah State senior center Lydia Whitehead was named to the WAC preseason all-conference second-team, voted on by the league's coaches. Whitehead's preseason honor is the third conference preseason individual honor for Utah State since joining the WAC prior to the 2005-06 season. Taylor Richards was named to the preseason second team in 2007, while Danyelle Snelgro earned second-team honors last season.

ADMISSION - Admission to Utah State's women's basketball games is $5 for adults, $1 for youth. Fans can buy a women's sport pass for $75 which will gain admittance to women's basketball, volleyball and gymastics. Contact the USU Athletics Ticket Office at (435)797-0305 or at 1-888-U-STATE-1 (1-888-878-2831) for more information or visit the Utah State athletic web site at www.UtahStateAggies.com.

TURNING 22 - The 2009-10 season marks the 22nd year of women's basketball at USU, and just the sixth since the program was restarted prior to the 2003-04 season. The women's hoops program at USU had been disbanded following the 1987 season due to budget cuts. USU is playing in its fifth season in the Western Athletic Conference (WAC) after playing its first two seasons in the Big West Conference.

AGGIES ON THE RADIO/WEB - Utah State games can be heard on KLGN (1390 AM) in Logan with Evan Nyman calling the play-by-play. They can also be heard on the web by going to the Utah State Athletics home page at www.UtahStateAggies.com and cling on the Yahoo Sports link in the right hand column.

GAMETRACKER - Fans can follow Aggie home games through the USU web site at www.UtahStateAggies.com via GameTracker, a free service, which updates play-by-play and statistics throughout the game.

ON THE INTERNET - All of Utah State's home games are available to watch live through Utah State TV via the internet at www.UtahStateAggies.com. USU fans can also listen to every game both home and away, via USU's web site.

FAMILIAR FACES - Head coach Raegan Pebley and the Aggies have three starters among seven letterwinners returning from last season's squad that posted an 16-15 overall record and a 9-7 record in the WAC in senior center Lydia Whitehead, senior forward Nicole Johnson and junior guard Alice Coddington.

BLOCK PARTY - With 85 career blocks,senior forward Nicole Johnson is now second in the Aggie record book for career blocks. The all-time block leader is Jessica Freeman (2003-06) who swatted 127 balls for Utah State. Last season, Johnson had 56 blocks. Last season, the Aggies knocked down 128 blocked shots. In 2009-10, 87 of the 128 blocks return this season in seniors Nicole Johnson and Lydia Whitehead.

AROUND THE COURT - News and Notes from around the Aggie basketball court.

Utah State said goodbye to four seniors, Danyelle Snelgro, Ana Pares, Ndoumbe Diop and Shawnta Pope. Snelgro ended her career as one of the most decorated Aggies. She had 1,043 points as an Aggie and is the sixth player to reach the 1,000-point plateau.

The 2009-10 season marks the 22nd year of women's basketball at USU, and just the seventh since the program was restarted prior to the 2003-04 season.

The Aggies return three starters and seven letterwinners from the 2008-09 team that went 16-15 and 9-7 in Western Athletic Conference action which tied for fifth. The nine WAC wins was the most won by Utah State since joining the league for the 2005-06 season.

USU enters its fifth season in the WAC.

Last season, USU won its first WAC Tournament game with a 59-58 win over Idaho in Reno, Nev.

The 16 wins that the Aggies had last season were the most in Pebley's career as a head coach. It was the third time that the Aggies registered double-digit wins.

Danyelle Snelgro and Ana Pares became the first Aggies to earn all- WAC honors under Pebley when both were honored last season.

COACH PEBLEY - Head coach Raegan Pebley is entering her seventh season as head coach at Utah State, which is the longest tenure in the program's history. Five games into the 2007-08 season, Pebley overtook the lead for the most games coached in Utah State history (116). She has now coached 171 games for the blue and white and has 58 wins as Aggie head coach which is first ahead of Fern Gardner (55) on the all-time win list.

IN THE CLASSROOM - Four Aggies were named to the Academic all-WAC team last season. Alice Coddington, Nicole Johnson, Ana Pares and Lydia Whitehead all earned honors.

NEWCOMERS - This season, the Aggies welcome five newcomers this season, including LaCale Pringle-Buchanan a junior guard from College of Southern Idaho and fellow junior forward Ashlee Brown, a transfer from UC Santa Barbara. Due to transfer rules, Brown will have to sit out the 2009-10 season. Utah State also added three freshman guards from all around the country. Jenna Johnson is freshman guard from Wasilla, Alaska, while Pualei Furtado is a freshman guard from Kaneohe, Hawaii. Devyn Christensen is another freshman guard from Caldwell, Idaho.

SPANNING THE GLOBE - The 2009-10 Utah State team is an international group. There are Aggies from three different countries and all across the United States. Juniors Stacey Howard and Alice Coddington hail from Australia, while redshirt freshman Banna Diop hails from Senegal. The players from the states hail from one end to the other. Pualei Furtado is from Hawaii, while fellow freshman Jenna Johnson is from Alaska. But there is only one player from the Beehive State, senior center Lydia Whitehead hails from Nibley, Utah.