THIS WEEK
The University of Colorado Colorado Springs women's basketball team will travel to Canyon, Texas this weekend, Nov. 9-10, to open the 2018-19 season.  The Mountain Lions will tip-off against West Texas A&M University on Friday at 4:30 (MT), and Texas-Permian Basin on Saturday at 2:30 p.m. (MT).  Both games will be played at the WTAMU First United Bank Center in Canyon, Texas.
 
ABOUT THE MOUNTAIN LIONS
UCCS was selected 11^th overall in the 2018-19 Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Women's Basketball preseason poll.  The Mountain Lions closed out the 2017-18 season in 10^th place in the league standings with a 10-12 league record, and a 10-17 overall mark.
 
UCCS returns nine letterwinners from last year's team: Caley Barnard, Abby Feickert, Madi Gaibler, Maddie Golla, Kelly O'Flannigan, Chelsea Pearson, Joey Sale, Emily Seifert, and Tatum Tellin.  The Mountain Lions bring seven to the program this season: Anna Davern, Jae Ferrin (Westmont College), Kaity Hovasse, Elly Johnson, Madison Lord (Lower Columbia College), Bo Shaffer (redshirt-freshman), and Kyra Young (redshirt-freshman).
 
Golla, Tellin and O'Flannigan started for the Mountain Lions last year.  Tellin led the team in minutes played (25.8) and rebounds (4.6), while Golla was a long distance shooter, sinking a team hi 26 three-point filed goals.  O'Flannigan started 24 of the 27 games she played, averaging 3.8 points and 2.2 rebounds per game.
 
Feickert ranked third on the team in scoring, averaging 5.8 points per game, and she tallied the third most steals on the team with 17.  Gaibler came off the bench last season and averaged 5.8 points per game while adding 24 assists and 17 steals.  Seifert blocked seven shots last season, the second most on the team, while also stealing the ball 15 times and dishing out 10 assists.
 
Pearson and Barnard each averaged 3.0 rebounds per game and 17 steals each off the bench in 2017-18.  Sale saw action in eight games, notching 13 rebounds, eight points and two dimes.
 
SCOUTING WEST TEXAS A&M
The defending Lone Star Conference Champion Lady Buffs are ranked seventh in the Women's Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA) Division II Preseason Top-25.  WT is coming off of the program's 24^th overall and fifth straight appearance in the NCAA Division II Postseason with a run to the South Central Regional Title Game as they finished the 2017-18 season with an overall record of 29-5. WT claimed the Lone Star Conference Regular Season and Tournament Titles with a mark of 16-4 in league action. The 2017-18 campaign marked the sixth straight season of at least 20 victories for the Lady Buffs.

Kristen Mattio enters her fourth season as the head coach of the Lady Buffs, registering an overall record of 83-19 (.814) with three NCAA Tournament appearances including a spot in the Regional Finals each of the three seasons and a South Central Regional Championship in 2016-17.
 
SCOUTING TEXAS-PERMIAN BASIN
UT Permian Basin women's basketball was voted to finish ninth in the Lone Star Conference.

Rae Boothe returns for her second season at the helm of the Falcons.  In her first season in Odessa, Boothe's Falcons led the Lone Star Conference in turnover margin at 5.25 and placed five players in the top 11 in steals in the conference. 

The Falcons return three players from last season including leading scorer and senior Khali Pippins-Tryon.  Pippins-Tryon finished 10th in the conference with 12.8 points per game and was fifth in the conference with 1.8 steals per game while being named a Lone Star Conference Honorable Mention at the end of the season.  Also returning is senior Chynna Rivera who played in 20 games last season and sophomore Juliette Akinwole who spent the season as a redshirt.

This season the Falcons feature 12 new players, six of them incoming freshman and four from Desoto High School. 
 
HEAD COACH LYNN PLETT
After the first RMAC championship in program history in his first season in 2016-17, Lynn Plett returns for his third year on the sideline for the University of Colorado Colorado Springs. He guided the Mountain Lions to the RMAC Tournament Championship in 2017 and the third straight NCAA Tournament appearance.

In the 2017-18 season, Plett coached All-RMAC honorable mention Shanah Leaf as well as five Mountain Lions who received honors on the RMAC All-Academic team. Last season proved to be a rebuilding year for the Mountain Lions as they lost three starting seniors in Jen Vigil, Brittany Hernandez, and Tori Fisher, while adding six new players to the roster. UCCS finished the season with an overall 10-17 record with a 10-12 conference record, which placed the Mountain Lions 10th in the RMAC conference.

Plett coached two All-RMAC First Team student-athletes for the 2016-17 season in Brittany Hernandez and Tori Fisher. The Mountain Lions tied for second in the RMAC standings and won the tournament with the best defensive performance in championship game history in a 53-37 victory against Regis. Hernandez would be named the tournament's Most Valuable Player. UCCS advanced to the second round of the NCAA Tournament in its furthest postseason run since 2015.

Plett spent four seasons at Northern Kentucky, where the Norse qualified for the Women's Basketball Invitational postseason tournament each season during the transition from NCAA Division II to Division I. Prior to NKU, he spent five seasons as the head coach at Missouri Western State University in St. Joseph, Mo. Plett served as the head coach at Lewis University in Romeoville, Ill. from 2002 through 2007.
 
Plett entered Division II coaching at Saint Joseph's College in Rensselaer, Ind., in 1994, where he also doubled as the athletic director.
 
UP NEXT
After the weekend in Texas, the Mountain Lions will head North to Wyoming to play the University of Wyoming in an exhibition contest on Tuesday, Nov. 13 at 6:30 p.m.  UCCS will return home to Gallgoly Events Center on Nov. 17 to play host to Northern New Mexico College in an exhibition game beginning at 5:30 p.m.