SACRAMENTO -- The Sacramento State women's basketball team opens its 32nd season at the Division I level with a pair of games, hosting Big West Conference runner-up UC Irvine on Saturday (Nov. 12) at 1 p.m., before heading to the Bay Area to take on Santa Clara in its road opener on Monday (Nov. 14) at 7 p.m. at the Leavey Center on campus.
THIS WEEK…
GAME #1
WHAT: UC Irvine (21-12, 14-4 Big West in 2021-22) at Sacramento State (14-16, 10-10 Big Sky in 2021-22)
WHEN: Saturday, Nov. 12, 2022
TIME: 1 p.m.
WHERE: Sacramento, Calif.
STADIUM: The Nest
WATCH: ESPN+
LIVE STATS: HornetStats.com
TICKETS: HornetSports.com
GAME #2
WHAT: Sacramento State (14-16, 10-10 Big Sky in 2021-22) at Santa Clara (16-15, 8-10 WCC in 2021-22)
WHEN: Monday, Nov. 14, 2022
TIME: 6 p.m.
WHERE: Santa Clara, Calif.
STADIUM: Leavey Center
WATCH: WCC Network
LIVE STATS: SantaClaraBroncos.com
IN THE RANKINGS: Neither Sacramento State, UC Irvine, nor Santa Clara are ranked nationally entering the 2022-23 season. The Hornets, however, will face three teams that finished last year receiving votes in the College Insider Mid-Major poll in the Anteaters and Big Sky Conference rivals Idaho State and Montana State.
HORNETS PICKED FIFTH TO START 2022-23: Sacramento State was picked to finish fifth in the Big Sky Conference standings according to a vote of both the league's head coaches and the media released by the conference office on Oct. 26. The Hornets, who finished seventh a season ago, received 146 points and a first-place vote in the media poll, while picking up 46 points in the coaches' poll. Montana State, which finished tied for second in the regular season and won the Big Sky Tournament title, was picked atop both polls, earning nine of the 10 first-place votes from the coaches, and 24 first-place votes from the media that cover the league.
BIG SKY HIGH: The Hornets' fifth-place prediction is the highest for the program since Sacramento State was picked to finish third in both the coaches and media polls prior to the 2015-16 campaign, after winning 18 games and advancing to the third round of the WNIT the season prior. The Hornets actually finished tied for second in the 2015-16 coaches poll with former member North Dakota, but the Fighting Hawks received one first-place vote to win the "tiebreaker."
NATABOU ON MID-MAJOR AWARD WATCH LIST: One season after showing she's one of the best in the West, junior post Isnelle Natabou is garnering national attention heading into the 2022-23 campaign, named as one of 25 players to the watch list for the 2023 Becky Hammon Mid-Major Player of the Year Award presented by Her Hoop Stats on Oct. 19. The first Big Sky Conference student-athlete ever to be named to the list for this particular award, Natabou is joined by 24 of her peers on the initial watch list and is only one of four from the West Coast named to the list along with Gonzaga's Brynna Maxwell, Portland's Alex Fowler, and San Francisco's Ioanna Kimili. For more details, read the complete release on HornetSports.com.
NATABOU NAMED TO BIG SKY'S PRESEASON HONOR ROLL: In addition to her national honor, Natabou was also named to the seven-member preseason all-conference team, joining Montana State's Darian White (who also was selected the MVP), Idaho's Beyonce Bea, Montana's Carmen Gfeller, Northern Colorado's Hannah Simental, Montana State's Kola Bad Bear, and Weber State's Daryn Hickock. The native of the Czech Republic became only the third Hornet to earn preseason all-league honors in the process, joining former standouts Kennedy Nicholas (2019-20) and Brianna Burgos (2016-17).
BUT WAIT... THERE'S MORE!: The accolades continued to roll in for Natabou, who was also named the Big Sky's Preseason Player of the Year according to ESPN.com, which made its picks for all 32 Division I conferences on Oct. 25.
ABOUT THE ANTEATERS: UC Irvine is coming off a season that saw the Anteaters finish 21-12 overall and 14-4 in Big West Conference play... UCI finished second in the regular season standings, reached the league's tournament championship game, and earned a berth into the WNIT, falling to UCLA in the opening round... Irvine is 1-0 on the young season following a 98-33 win over Whittier College on Tuesday (Nov. 8)... The Anteaters lost their top three scorers -- and four of their top five -- off of last season's squad as grad forward Naomi Hunt leads the returning group after averaging 7.2 points and 3.4 rebounds per game a season ago.
SERIES NOTES: The series between UC Irvine and Sacramento State is tied at six wins apiece after the Anteaters posted a 58-51 win in Orange County last season, snapping a three-game winning streak by the Hornets in the series... Saturday marks the first meeting between the two programs in Sacramento since the Hornets posted a 126-78 victory on Dec. 22, 2015... Sacramento State is 2-3 all-time against the Anteaters at home, winning the last two meetings at The Nest in 2013 and 2015... Five of the last six meetings between the two have been decided by single digits, with the lone outlier that 48-point win in 2015.
ABOUT THE BRONCOS: Santa Clara is coming off a 2021-22 campaign that saw the Broncos finish 16-15 overall and 8-10 in the West Coast Conference, winning 11 of their 14 games at home... Santa Clara reached the quarterfinals of the WCC Tournament, posting wins over Pacific and San Diego before falling to San Francisco... The Broncos are 0-1 on the young season after falling to UC Santa Barbara, 73-61, on Monday (Nov. 7) in their season opener, and face Cal State Fullerton on Friday (Nov. 11) before hosting Sacramento State... Santa Clara lost its top three scorers off of last season's squad as junior guard Ashley Hiraki leads the returning group after averaging 7.9 points and 3.3 rebounds per game.
SERIES NOTES: Santa Clara leads the all-time series with Sacramento State by a 12-4 count, but the two programs haven't met in women's basketball since Dec. 22, 2011, when the Broncos posted a 96-76 win in Sacramento... The Hornets' last win in the series came in Santa Clara on Dec. 5, 2010, by the score of 78-65 -- the second of back-to-back road wins in the series for Sacramento State... The Hornets are 2-7 all-time against the Broncos in Santa Clara.
LID-LIFTERS: Since records are available dating back to the 1973-74 season, the Hornets are 16-33 all time in season opener, but just 7-24 in the program's Division I era... This year marks the first time that Sacramento State will open the regular season at home since 2018 when it posted an 88-85 victory over Cal Poly... The Hornets have lost each of their last three season openers -- all on the road -- against Nevada (83-72), Idaho (97-73), and California (90-71)... Sacramento State is an even 24-24 in home openers, winning five of their last six, including a 75-65 triumph over San Jose State last season... The Hornets have never opened the regular season against UC Irvine, but the Anteaters have tipped-off Sacramento State's home schedule on one other occasion, downing the Hornets, 69-55, on Nov. 28, 1995.
BETTER LATE THAN NEVER: Not counting the delayed COVID season in 2020-21, this year's Nov. 12 tip-off against UC Irvine is the latest that the Hornets have officially opened a season since the 2015-16 squad opened on the road at Utah State on Nov. 14 (a 95-86 victory in Logan, Utah).
TURN AROUND: Every now and then we get a little bit nostalgic about the Hornets' turnaround in the win column in 2021-22, going from a three-win team two years ago to putting up one of the nation's best year-to-year improvements with 14 victories a season later. The 11-win improvement was a school record, besting the seven-win increase from 2003-04 (1-26) to 2004-05 (8-20) and trailed only 12-win improvements by Portland State, Montana State, and Weber State in their respective histories in the Big Sky annals. At the end of the year, Sacramento State's comeback was tied for seventh in the NCAA, trailing only LSU, Toledo, Kansas, USC Upstate, Utah, and Southern Illinois.
WINDEX WOMAN: Keeping the glass clean all season long in her Division I debut, Isnelle Natabou's work on the boards ranked among one of the top single-season performances in school history as her 328 rebounds were good for fourth on the school's chart, while her 10.9 rebounds per game ranked eighth. She is the first Hornet to average double-digit rebounds since Kennedy Nicholas in 2018-19 (11.1 rpg) while her 328 total rebounds were the most since Kylie Kuhns grabbed 342 in 2012-13.
CHAIRWOMAN OF THE BOARDS: Natabou's league-leading average made her the fourth different Hornet to lead the Big Sky in rebounding since Sacramento State joined the league and the first since Kennedy Nicholas in 2018-19 (11.1 rpg). Along with Natabou and Nicholas, Margaret Huntington (9.1 rpg, 2016-17) and Kylie Kuhns (11.1 rpg in 2010-11, 11.6 rpg in 2011-12, and 11.0 rpg in 2012-13) are the only other Hornets to pace the conference on glass.
DOUBLE-DOUBLING UP: Natabou ranked second on the team (and seventh in the Big Sky) in scoring at 14.7 ppg to go with her league-best rebounding total, becoming the first Hornet to average a double-double in a season since Kennedy Nicholas did so in 2018-19 (13.0 ppg and 11.1 rpg). Natabou finished the 2021-22 campaign with 15 double-doubles to her name -- including a remarkable run of 10 straight from Jan. 15 to Feb. 12 -- a total that ranked No. 23 in the NCAA at the end of the year.
THE DEAN OF SCORING: Senior transfer Kahlaijah Dean brings with her a pedigree of knowing where the basket is, reaching the 1,000 career point milestone as a junior at Oakland University and finishing her four years with the Golden Grizzlies with 1,425 points to her name. That total would rank seventh on the Sacramento State all-time scoring list.
THREE-CO-LA!: Sophomore Katie Peneueta's 56 makes from three-point range last season led the team and ranked tied for the seventh in the Big Sky Conference, while standing as the most by a Hornet in a single season since Maranne Johnson drained 79 from beyond the arc in 2017-18. Peneueta set a school single-season record by hitting .463 from distance, sinking all but four of her makes on the year from three-point range.
SWIPER, NO SWIPING: Senior Jordan Olivares enters the 2022-23 season as the team's active leader with 92 career steals, swiping 35 as a freshman, career-high 36 as a sophomore, and 21 last season as a junior. She has led or shared the team lead in steals in a game in 24 of 68 career appearances, including a career-high five twice against Northern Colorado (Jan. 16, 2020) and Portland State (Jan. 21, 2021).
NKOTB - NEW KID ON THE BENCH: The Sacramento State coaching staff remains intact for the 2022-23 campaign with one notable addition: Nyara Sabally, the No. 5 overall draft pick of the New York Liberty in the 2022 WNBA Draft, has joined the sidelines as an assistant. Sabally reunited with her former coaches and teammate at the University of Oregon after competing under Head Coach Mark Campbell and Associate Head Coach Xavi Lopez for three years with the Ducks from 2018-21, and playing alongside assistant coach Minyon Moore during the 2019-20 campaign. Read the full announcement of her hire at HornetSports.com.
STAY ON TARGET: The hot-shooting Hornets were one of the most efficient in program history in 2021-22 as the team's .434 field goal percentage ranked sixth on the school's single-season list, the .332 from beyond the arc as a squad ranked fourth, and the .718 from the line stands sixth. Speaking of accuracy, Natabou's .643 field goal percentage not only led the league, but made her the first Hornet EVER to lead the Big Sky in field goal percentage.
DE-FENSE (CLAP, CLAP)... DE-FENSE (CLAP, CLAP): The Hornets locked down on the defensive end in 2021-22, improving their scoring defense by nearly 10 points per game from the 2020-21 campaign by surrendering an average of 65.6 points per contest last season. It marked the fewest points per game allowed in a single campaign since opponents averaged just 64.0 ppg against the 2004-05 squad.
TOWERS OF POWER: Things are looking up for Sacramento State women's basketball... and we mean that quite literally. The Hornets enter the 2022-23 season listing six players standing six-foot or taller -- the most since the 2006-07 team featured seven players at that height or above. This season, Sacramento State doesn't feature a player shorter than six-foot-one, while the 2006-07 squad featured only two players at that height or taller.
FUN WITH FLAGS: Sacramento State has gone global once again, as the Hornets' roster features four student-athletes from outside the United States: Benthe Versteeg (Netherlands), Akaysha Muggeridge (Australia) Irune Orio (Spain), and Isnelle Natabou (Czech Republic), while the bench features coaches from Barcelona, Spain (Associate Head Coach Xavi Lopez), Berlin, Germany (Assistant Coach Nyara Sabally), and Osnabruck, Germany (student assistant Emily Enochs).
STATE OF MIND: Outside of Sacramento State's four international student-athletes, the Hornets' roster also features five native Californians and three players from outside the "Golden State in Solape Amusan (Woodbury, Minn.), Katie Peneueta (Vancouver, Wash.), and Erin Hedman (New Berlin, Wisc.). Peneueta is the first Washingtonian to suit up in the green and gold since Kennedy Nicholas (Kirkland), while Hedman is the first Wisconsinite since Adella Randle-El (Racine). Amusan, however, is the first Minnesotan in the program's Division I history, which has featured representatives from 22 states in that span.
BY THE NUMBERS: Returning only three letter winners who saw game time a season ago, the Hornets bring back only 35 percent of their points, 48 percent of their rebounds, 35 percent of their three-pointers made, and 37 percent of their made field goals for the 2022-23 season. What does it all mean? We don't know... but numbers are fun.
A "GOLDEN" OPPORTUNITY: For the second consecutive season, the Causeway battle with rival UC Davis will have a slightly different look to it as the Hornets and the Aggies will take the floor at the Golden 1 Center -- home of the NBA's Sacramento Kings -- on Nov. 22 at 5 p.m., in the first game of a doubleheader with the two school's men's teams. Last year, UC Davis took the first-ever meeting between the two at the Golden 1 Center, 75-46.
