MIDWAY, Ky. -- Now that the calendar has switched over to November, that can only mean it's time for college basketball to begin as the Midway University women's basketball team opens their 2018-19 season on Friday night inside Marshall Gymnasium.
The Eagles will open their season by hosting the Pomeroy's of St.-Mary-of-the-Woods (Ind.) at 7 p.m. ET inside Marshall Gymnasium. Live stats and live video will be provided for the game.
Last season saw the Eagles go 17-14 overall and 9-9 in River States Conference play. That was under then head coach, John Kenger. Following the season, Kenger took the same position at Lourdes University (Ohio) in Sylvania, Ohio.
Making his debut on the sidelines for the Eagles on Friday night will be first year head coach, Alan Foster. Foster was hired in June 2018 after spending the last 18 seasons at Bacone College in Muskogee, Oklahoma.
During his 18 seasons on the sidelines at Bacone, Foster amassed 292 victories, which has him at No. 20 among the NAIA Division I men's basketball winningest active coaches.
Since being hired, Foster has been busy getting to know his team, while also learning more about Midway University.
"It's been a whirlwind," said Foster when asked about his time at Midway thus far. "I've really enjoyed my time learning more about Midway University as well as getting to know the team."
Foster added, "It's been a fun adventure so far, the girls have really been working hard in practice and we're ready to get the season started."
Most first year coaches would step into a new program and implement a certain system right away. That's not the way that Foster sees it; he sees it as adapting to your players abilities.
"I think it's always about adapting to your players abilities," noted Foster. "There are, however, certain foundations that you want to see in your program and one of those for me is being a team that is hard to score on."
Since starting practice in late September one of the things Foster has really stressed in practice is defense. "We've spent a lot of time on defense. We're really trying to get the team to buy-in to defending and being tough to score on."
Foster has not only been dealt with the difficult task of learning his team, but his team will also have to replace three seniors from last year's team that were lost to graduation.
The cupboard, however, isn't completely bare as the Eagles return three starters from last year's team including the leading scorer and second team All-Conference performer Haleigh Yazell. Yazell was also named to the RSC Women's Basketball Preseason All-Conference Team.
The junior from Paris, Kentucky is coming off a season in 2017-18 that saw her average 13.7 points per game to go with 4.8 rebounds per game. She also shot 40.4 percent from three.
The Eagles also return the services of starting point guard, Kelsee Kinder who started in 26 games as a junior. In 2017-18, the senior from Detroit, Mich. averaged 9.5 points per game as well as 3.93 assists per game.
Midway will also welcome back the services of juniors, Arryn Dochenetz (Detroit, Mich.) and Madison Jones (Walton, Ky.) as well as sophomore, Allyson Callahan (Morehead, Ky.) all of which saw valuable playing time in 2017-18.
"I really like what I've seen from our returners thus far," said Foster. "They've really shown a great deal of leadership for our freshman who are getting the taste of college life for the first time."
Even though the Eagles will return some familiar faces, as Foster notes, they are young. The Eagles welcome in 13 new faces including 12 freshman who will be making their collegiate debut in 2018-19.
"We are young," noted Foster. "It's going to be an adjustment for them and there's going to be some growing pains, but eventually by the second semester I think it will have paid off after getting baptism by fire in the first semester.
When asked what he expects from his team, Foster said that he wants to see them play hard and play together and he believes if they do that, the results will be there in the end.
Tipoff is set for 7 p.m. ET on Friday night inside Marshall Gymnasium.
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