Oct. 15, 2009

LOGAN, Utah - Utah State women's basketball will officially start practice for the 2009-10 season on Friday, Oct. 16 at the Health Physical Education and Recreation building (HPER). The Aggie women will practice from 4-7 p.m.

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.

The Aggies return 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 returns three starters in junior guard Alice Coddington, senior forward Nicole Johnson and senior center Lydia Whitehead. Coddington was one of four Aggies to finished sixth in the WAC in minutes played, averaging 34.68 mpg.

With 85 career blocks, Nicole Johnson is now second in the Aggie record book for career blocks. The all-time blocks leader is Jessica Freeman (2003-06) who swatted 127 shots for Utah State. Last season, Johnson had 56 blocks.

Whitehead finished 12th in the WAC in rebounds, averaging 6.2 rpg. She also ended last season 10th in the conference in free throw percentage (.696).

This season, the Aggies welcome six newcomers, including junior Ashlee Brown a transfer from UC Santa Barbara who will sit out this season. USU has three true freshmen in forward Devyn Christensen (Caldwell, Idaho/Vallivue HS ), guard Jenna Johnson (Wasilla, Alaska/Wasilla HS) and guard Pualei Furtado (Kaneohe, Hawaii/Kamehameha HS). Junior guard LaCale Pringle-Buchanan is a transfer from the College of Southern Idaho, while guard Trisha Jo Goddard is a redshirt freshman this season.

The Aggies begin the 2009-10 season on Monday, Nov. 9 with an exhibition against Montana Tech at 7 p.m. at the Dee Glen Smith Spectrum. USU opens the regular season on Friday, Nov. 13 against in-state rival Utah at 7 p.m.