Notre Dame Girls Basketball Preview

Conference: SEMO Conference

Coach: Renee'Peters, eighth season

District: Class 4 District 1

Schedule:

Date Day of Week Opponent Location Time

December 1-6, 2014 Monday-Saturday 50th Annual Farmington Invitational Tournament Farmington TBA

December 11, 2014 Thursday Perryville Home 6 p.m.

December 13, 2014 Saturday St. Joseph's Academy Away 3 p.m.

December 17-23, 2014 Wednesday-Tuesday Kelso Supply Holiday Classic Show-Me Center TBA

January 5, 2015 Monday Ursuline Academy Home 6 p.m.

January 8, 2015 Thursday Fredericktown Away 6 p.m.

January 9, 2015 Friday Nerinx Hall Home 6 p.m.

January 12, 2015 Monday Farmington Away 6 p.m.

January 15, 2015 Thursday Sikeston Away 6 p.m.

January 16, 2015 Friday Cor Jesu Academy Home 6 p.m.

January 22, 2015 Thursday Jackson Home 6 p.m.

January 29-31, 2015 Thursday-Saturday Queen of Hearts Tournament Villa Duchesne TBA

February 2, 2015 Monday Cape Central Home 6 p.m.

February 5, 2015 Thursday Saxony Lutheran Home 6 p.m.

February 9, 2015 Monday Dexter Away 6 p.m.

February 16, 2015 Monday Mary Institute & St. Louis Country Day School (MICDS) Away 5 p.m.

February 19, 2015 Thursday Neelyville Home 6 p.m.

February 23, 2015 Monday Kennett Away 6 p.m.

February 26, 2015 Thursday Poplar Bluff Home 6 p.m.

Roster:

No. Player Year Height

10 Sam Brennan 10 5'6

13 Morgan Duschell 10 5'4

15 Maddie Urhahn 11 5'8

21 Abbie McAlister 11 6'1

22 Allie Ziegler 10 6'

23 Olivia Jansen 12 5'8

24 Briley Bieser 11 5'6

25 Hayli Chapman 11 5'8

31 Brooke Blankenship 9 5'4

33 Sydney Newell 10 5'5

35 Cheyenne Sander 11 6'

45 Lexi Welter 9 5'8

Returning starters: None

Starters lost: Annie Siebert, Kaitlin Welter, Karsen Powers, Shelby Beussink, Madeline Rosenquist

Last year's record: 21-3

Postseason result: Lost to Dexter 65-58 in overtime in district championship

Last year's leaders:

Points: Annie Siebert (14.0 ppg)

Rebounds: Shelby Beussink (6.0 rpg)

Assists: Karsen Powers (4.5 apg)

Team outlook

There aren't many familiar faces with the Notre Dame girls basketball team this season.

Eight players from last year's team that finished 21-3 and second in its district graduated.

Bulldogs coach Renee' Peters knows that it's going to take time to get a group that had some success at the JV level last year to transition to varsity, but has seen improvement every day.

"The first week was trying just because everything was so new," Peters said. "The last three or four practices I've seen a tremendous amount of improvement just because I think they're getting comfortable with what I expect in the drills. Now that they know it, now we just need to improve. *... I see progress. Like I say it's not where we start, it's where we finish, and that's kind of our goal for this year is to just keep getting better every game."

The past four years Notre Dame's season has ended in the district championship game.

Peters is optimistic her team can reach that again this season. She knows that any varsity game experience will help her youthful players, but thinks the Bulldogs' schedule can provide even more growth.

"I'd put our schedule up against anyone's because we play a ton of schools out of St. Louis in Class 5, and it does prepare us and get us ready for postseason, but it can be brutal at times," Peters said. "We were in St. Louis like nine times last January, playing bigger schools. Every part of your game has to click up a notch or two."

Peters noted her team has more height than last season, with 6-foot-1 Abbie McAlister and 6-footers Cheyenne Sander and Allie Ziegler, but that won't change the look of the Bulldogs much.

"My game plan is not going to change very much," Peters said. "We've got that same run-and-gun, transition, cause chaos on defense [style], but we just expect those big girls to be able to do it as well."

Peters said the team's success won't come from one player, but rather several of them will need to step up.

"We've got eight or nine that are going to make up this unit, and they've got to learn to just contribute on the floor, do what they can and trust in their teammates," Peters said. "That trust and that confidence is just going to come with playing. If you become successful your confidence builds and as your confidence builds you become more successful, so we've got to just get some confidence and success beneath us. I want this team to earn some respect. I think the last couple years we've had a great deal of respect. These young ladies, in order to get respected need to beat some good teams, so that's what we're working on. We've got to beat good teams, you've got to earn some respect and then we'll just grow from there."

District breakdown

Class 4 District 1 didn't change a bit with realignments, so for Peters and the Bulldogs that means that state runner-up Dexter likely stands in the way.

Notre Dame has lost to Dexter five out of the last six years in the district championship, including the last four seasons.

"Just not having seen the rest of our district play out, I would count on Dexter," Peters said. "I think Sikeston's an up-and-coming team. I think Matt Schonhoff's doing a great job with those girls. And I would like to say that we would be a contender as well. It seems like it comes down to that battlefield. I know Dexter lost a lot of seniors last year -- they lost four, but we lost eight, so we'll see."

Looking back

Peters knows that her youthful squad will get acclimated to the varsity level through game experience, but the players could also pick up a lot from last year's group that lost in overtime in the district title game and posted a 21-3 record.

"Watching that team last year [you'd see] a heck of a lot of heart," Peters said. "We went 21-3 last year and we beat St. Louis teams, we beat teams that were bigger than us, stronger than us, but we relied on each other's strengths. That's one thing this team needs to learn how to do."