2007-08 Women's Basketball Preview 

The Elizabethtown College women's basketball team has all the pieces in place to be a factor in the Commonwealth Conference during the 2007-08 season, which tips off on Saturday, Nov. 17 when the Blue Jays face FDU-Florham at Johns Hopkins University.

The Blue Jays, who finished 13-11 overall and 5-9 in the conference a year ago, return all five starters and nine of the 12 members of last season's squad, which was eliminated from postseason contention on the final day of the season.

Head coach Yvonne Kauffman begins her 38th season on the Blue Jay bench with 629 victories to rank third all-time among NCAA Division III coaches and 20th overall among coaches at all three levels of the NCAA.

Aiding in the Blue Jays' efforts toward a playoff berth is the realignment of the Commonwealth Conference, which saw the league reduced from eight to six teams following the departure of Juniata College, Moravian College and Susquehanna University and the arrival of Lycoming College.

The other item of interest for Blue Jay fans will be following senior guard Erin Walton (Columbus, NJ/Northern Burlington County) as she chases the career point record at Elizabethtown.

Walton enters her senior season with 1,293 points to rank 11th in program history, just 464 points behind the 1,757 points scored by All-American Page Lutz '84. Last season, Walton scored 501 points and averaged a conference-best 20.9 points per game for the Blue Jays en route to earning first-team All-Conference honors.

She scored in double figures in all but one game last year, and surpassed the 20-point mark 13 times including five 30-point efforts. Walton also shot 86 percent (111-for-129) from the foul line including a 16-for-16 effort in a win over Susquehanna.

Senior center Audrey Hitz (Lebanon, PA/Annville-Cleona) is a factor in the post for the Blue Jays, after averaging 8.8 points and leading the Commonwealth Conference with 10.5 rebounds per contest. She recorded six double-doubles last year, and pulled at least 10 boards in 14 contests including a 19-rebound effort against Widener University.

Senior Amanda Reid (Nazareth, PA/Nazareth Area) added 5.2 points and 6.5 rebounds per game from her power forward spot, while junior Jenn Montague (Newark, DE/St. Mark's) started 11 games in the frontcourt and finished with 5.3 points and 4.3 boards per contest.

In the backcourt, junior Megan Quinn (Millersville, PA/Penn Manor) averaged 10.7 points and 4.3 rebounds per game for the Blue Jays. A starter in 13 of the team's 24 games, Quinn averaged 11.8 points per game as a starter and 9.4 per game off the bench.

Quinn also led the Blue Jays with 35 three-pointers and 36 steals, while averaging 82.4 percent (42-for-51) from the foul line. She scored in double figures 14 times last year, including a 21-point effort against Trinity College.

Junior guard Megan Romano (Jenkintown, PA/Jenkintown) started every game at the point and led the Blue Jays with 91 assists (3.8 per game) while averaging 4.9 points per game.

Off the bench, sophomore guard Courtney Kofeldt (Coatesville, PA/Holy Spirit, NJ) is a three-point threat after connecting on 21 threes last season. Sophomore guard Ashley Toczylowski (Dupont, PA/Wyoming Seminary) and sophomore forward Ali Jury (Halifax, PA/Halifax) also saw regular action off the Blue Jay bench a year ago.

A trio of first-year players will look to make an impact on the program: guards Gabrielle Whitley (Lititz, PA/Warwick) and Kirsti Larsen (Carlisle, PA/Boiling Springs) and forward Kaity Snyder (Catawissa, PA/Southern Columbia).