Wittenberg guard Kari Kitchen is one six returning letterwinners with significant experience heading into the 2003-04 season.
The Wittenberg women's basketball program, winners of nine North Coast Athletic Conference regular season champions and six NCAC Tournament titles since 1989, welcomes nine letterwinners - but just one starter - back into the fold in 2003-04.
That said, it would appear that the Tigers, NCAC regular season and tournament champions a year ago en route to a 24-5 overall record and the program's seventh NCAA Division III Tournament berth, and Head Coach Pam Smith have quite a rebuilding project ahead of them. But appearances can be deceiving.
That's because among those nine returning letterwinners, six have seen significant action at the varsity level the last two seasons as the Tigers posted a 30-2 NCAC regular season record. Four of them were on the court for the final minute of a 64-57 NCAA Division III Tournament loss at Baldwin-Wallace last March.
The lone returning starter is senior point guard Christina Fischer (Norwood, Ohio/Cincinnati St. Ursula). She and fellow senior Kari Kitchen (South Charleston, Ohio/Southeastern), who shared time at point guard in 2002-03, will hold down that spot again this season after combining for an outstanding assist-turnover ratio of 83-74 a year ago. The other starting guard will likely be senior Amber Bishop (Batavia, Ohio/Batavia), who averaged 8.2 points per game last year and tied a Wittenberg, NCAC and NCAA Division III record with 12 straight field goals against Hiram on Feb. 7, 2003.
Senior Haley Warden (Loveland, Ohio/Indian Hill), who swings between guard and forward and led the Tigers with 5.3 rebounds per game off the bench last year, is another likely starter. In addition, junior guard Emilie Schmid (Canton, Ohio/Massillon Jackson), who doubles as an all-conference volleyball player on the Tigers' nationally ranked team, junior Alison Nahrup (Loveland, Ohio/Mt. Notre Dame) and sophomore Carrie Jones (Greenville, Ohio/Greenville), who saw action in 23 games, will be in the backcourt rotation. Senior forward Geri Woessner (Dayton, Ohio/Oakwood), one of the greatest track athletes in NCAC history, one of the greatest soccer players in Wittenberg history and a three-year letterwinner in basketball despite missing all but four games in 2002-03 with a knee injury, is the team's most experienced frontcourt returnee. She will be joined in that area by sophomore Joyce Dindo (Akron, Ohio/Walsh Jesuit), who appeared in 15 games off the bench a year ago and made 50 percent of her field goal attempts.
Team Information
Letterwinners Returning: (9)
Amber Bishop (G, 5-8, Sr.)
Christina Fischer (G, 5-7, Sr.)
Kari Kitchen (G, 5-7, Sr.)
Haley Warden (F, 5-9, Sr.)
Geri Woessner (F, 5-10, Sr.)
Alison Nahrup (G, 5-9, Jr.)
Emilie Schmid (G, 5-7, Jr.)
Joyce Dindo (P, 5-11, So.)
Carrie Jones (G, 5-8, So.)
Letterwinners Lost: (7)
Ayisha Kinamore
Meghan Bruggeman
Stephanie Campbell
Tiffany Keller
Rebecca Meers
Natalie Muir
Kate Rolf