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LANCASTER, PA -- The Franklin & Marshall women’s basketball
team will open the New Year at the fifth Annual Starters Moravian
Winter Classic at Moravian College on January 6-7 as the Diplomats
will clash with Delaware Valley College and either Moravian
College, or Albany College of Pharmacy.
On January 6, F&M will face the Aggies at 6:00 p.m. before Moravian takes on Albany College of Pharmacy at 8:00 p.m. The consolation and championship games will occur at 6 and 8 p.m., respectively, on January 7. Franklin & Marshall enters the tournament 2-5, 1-2 in the Centennial Conference, after defeating Elmira College (73-67) and Haverford College (73-65) and falling to Widener University (67-73), Gettysburg College (62-71), York College (73-81), Dickinson College (49-64) and Messiah College (31-68). Leading the way in the early part of the season were guards Dana Johns (Sr., York, PA/Eastern York), Christy Strunk (Sr., Pittsburgh, PA/North Allegheny) and Sarah Meisenberg (Fr., Severna Park, MD/Severn School). A 2006 D3hoops.com Preseason All-America Honorable Mention selection, Johns was named the 2005 Centennial Conference Player of the Year and earned Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) Division III Southern an All-Centennial Conference first team honors in addition to earning D3hoops.com All Mid-Atlantic Region second team honors. The team leader in scoring (11.9 ppg), assists (3.1 apg), steals (2.6 spg), minutes played (36.3 mpg), three-point attempts (5.6 apg), three-point field goals made (1.9 pg), field goal attempts (13.1 apg) and free-throw attempts (5.0 apg), she is third on the team in three-point percentage (33.3%), free-throw percentage (85.7%) and rebounds (4.6 rpg). Meisenberg leads the team in field goal percentage (40.7%) and ranks second in free-throw percentage (86.2%), assists (2.6 apg) and steals (2.3 spg). Further, she is third in field goals made (3.1 pg) and scoring (10.3 ppg) and ranks fourth in rebounds (3.9 rpg). Also contributing for the Diplomats is Strunk who leads the team in field goals made (4.3 pg) and ranks second in scoring (11.5 ppg), field goal percentage (38.2%), field goal attempts (11.3 apg), three-point attempts (4.5 pg), three point field goals made (1.7 pg) and three-point field goal percentage (37.0%). Delaware Valley comes into the tournament with an overall record of 7-2 on the heels of a three game win streak with victories over Lebanon Valley (71-67), Penn State Abington (57-36) and Eastern University (82-48). Rachel Joyce leads the Aggies in scoring (15.4 ppg) and rebounding (7.6 rpg) this season as Delaware Valley is strong across the board as they have three other players in addition to Joyce averaging scoring in double figures in Moira Donohue (13.3 ppg), Juli McGowan (12.1 ppg) and Shannon O’Neill (11.6 ppg). Moravian enters ranked #20 nationally with an overall record of 9-1, 2-0 Commonwealth Conference after wins versus Ursinus (52-48) and Wilkes (88-62) following their only defeat of the season at the hands of #6 University of Scranton (67-62). Junior forward Kelly Applegate keys the Greyhounds as she is scoring 16.4 points, hauling in 8.2 rebounds and shooting 68.5% from the field. The Albany College of Pharmacy brings an 8-2 record to the table and are coming off a 68-59 win over Sul Ross State University in the consolation game of the Southwestern (Texas) Invitational. In that game Sarah Gruber scored a season-high 18 points to lead ACP as she was seven-of-eight from the field to lead four Panthers players in double figures. Pam Leonardi had 14 points and seven rebounds and Stefanie Alger and Randi Maurer contributed 13 points a piece to power Albany.
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