UK Hoops season opens Friday

Guard+Bria+Goss+%2813%29+points+for+a+play+during+the+first+half+of+UK+hoops+vs+Eckerd+College+at+Memorial+Coliseum+in+Lexington%2C+Ky.%2C+on+Sunday%2C+November+3%2C+2013.+Photo+by+Eleanor+Hasken

Guard Bria Goss (13) points for a play during the first half of UK hoops vs Eckerd College at Memorial Coliseum in Lexington, Ky., on Sunday, November 3, 2013. Photo by Eleanor Hasken

By Tyler Spanyer

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UK Hoops, which is ranked seventh in the nation, will open its season on the road Friday as they face Marist College before playing Wagner College on Sunday in Staten Island, N.Y.

“There is tremendous benefit by starting the season with a team that we feel like can be very good and can be challenged the opening night,” UK Hoops head coach Matthew Mitchell said Wednesday. “We’re really excited to get the season started.”

UK will face Marist, a team that went undefeated in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference last year and won their 10th consecutive regular season conference crown.

“We’re fortunate to play such a great team at the beginning of the season,” junior guard Bria Goss said. “Marist is very fundamentally sound. It will be a very good test to see where we are at early in season.”

Marist head coach Brian Giorgis has a .776 winning percentage as he enters his 12th season as head coach of the Red Foxes. Giorgis and his team return 11 players from last year’s team, including four starters.

“We have tremendous respect for Marist and their program,” Mitchell said. “I think that Coach Giorgis is one of the better coaches in our game. It’ll be a sellout crowd, so it will be an incredible atmosphere for women’s college basketball and we’re awfully excited to be a part of it.”

The second game of the Cats’ opening weekend will be against first-time opponent Wagner.

The Seahawks return five players from last year’s team including two starters.

The Seahawks have never been to the NCAA Women’s Tournament or the Women’s National Invitational Tournament.

Wagner was picked to finish last in the Northeast Conference preseason poll after last year’s 3-26 record.

Sophomore guard Jordyn Peck is the second-leading scorer from last year’s team, averaging 10.2 points per game.

UK senior DeNesha Stallworth has been on three preseason award watch lists and starts her final collegiate season against Marist.

“DeNesha is told every day in practice how valuable she is to our team,” Mitchell said. “Not because of any award she is going to win, but because our team needs her to do well so we can all be successful.”

The game against Marist is at 7 p.m. Friday and 1 p.m. Sunday against Wagner.