California Baptist University
UC San Diego
WBB PREVIEW: The Lancers Return Strong Core, Begin Season In San Diego
11/4/2023 11:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
RIVERSIDE - California Baptist University women's basketball is just a few days from opening the 2023-24 season with a solid returning core and a deep, solid group of new faces.
CBU will host 14 of their 29 games this season, including non-conference bouts against Long Beach State, UTEP, Portland, and Cal State Fullerton. Conference play will get an early start as the Lancers will travel to Southern Utah and Utah Tech on November 28 and December 6 before the full slate begins at home against Utah Valley on January 4.
To begin his 12th year in Riverside, Head Coach Jarrod Olson returns five players from last season. Grace Schmidt, 2022-23 All-WAC Second Team selection, will lead fellow veterans Chloe Webb, Kinsley Barrington, Filipa Barros, and Nae Nae Calhoun through another demanding schedule. They will have a bolstered group of transfers and freshmen to aid them as this year's 12-woman roster takes aim at another deep WAC run.
Nhug Bosch Duran, Anaiyah Tu'ua, and Emily Sewell all bring years of Division I experience with them to Riverside. Duran, a Barcelona, Spain native, comes to CBU after two seasons at Wichita State, where she made 52 appearances and 15 starts for the Shockers, averaging 3.3 points and 1.6 assists per game. Sewell spent two seasons with the Portland Pilots, where she made 45 appearances after moving to the States from Melbourne, Australia. Tu'ua statistically brings the best resume of the trio, averaging 6.7 points, 4.0 rebounds, and 2.8 assists per game after two years with the Matadors of CSUN.
Olson didn't stop at the transfer portal, choosing also to continue to bring in top high school talent as has been a successful blueprint for Lancer teams in the recent past. Claudia Fiel is the second Spaniard on the squad, hailing from Marin, Spain. Three domestic freshmen join her: Sydney White from Colorado, Khloe Lemon from Nebraska, and Nia Anderson from California.
UC SAN DIEGO AT A GLANCE
The Tritons and Lancers have met up in each of the past two seasons, with CBU going 2-0 in those meetings. Last season, UCSD finished with a 13-17 overall record, going 10-10 in the Big West to finish sixth out of the 11 teams in their conference. This season, they were voted by the coaches to finish fifth in the Big West, tied with Cal State Fullerton in that slot. Their top-returning scorer is a six-foot guard, Izzy Forsyth, who put up 9.5 points and 4.1 boards per game in 2022-23.
SAN DIEGO STATE AT A GLANCE
The Aztecs have faced the Lancers for four of the last five years, holding a 3-1 advantage in the series over CBU. SDSU edged California Baptist 78-77 in the previous meeting between these two teams on December 8, 2021.
The Aztecs finished last season at 23-11 overall and 12-6 in the Mountain West, making it to the semifinals of the MWC Tournament before falling to top-seeded UNLV. Despite the second-round loss, the Aztecs season garnered enough respect to earn an invite to the WNIT, where they lost in the first round to UC Irvine, 55-45.
This season, SDSU was voted in the preseason poll to finish fifth. That slight drop from being a conference tournament semi-finalist a year ago may be partly due to the squad losing their top four scorers. The leading returner is senior Kim Villalobos, who averaged 8.5 points and 5.3 rebounds for the Aztecs last season.
California Baptist opens up against UCSD on Monday, November 6, at 5:00 p.m. and will follow that with a trip to SDSU on Friday, November 10, at 6:00 p.m. Both games will be available on ESPN+.
