11/18/2008 -

Courtney Heesemann led the Dolphins with 15.5 points per game last season.

RIVERDALE, NY – First year Head Coach Gerald Davis will be on the sidelines tonight for the College of Mount Saint Vincent Women’s Basketball team in its season opener at Lehman. The Dolphins were selected third in the Skyline Conference Preseason Coaches’ Poll and received a pair of first place votes after finishing 21-7 in 2007-08.

Davis will take the reigns of the women’s team after the Dolphins posted 21 wins last season and earned the program’s first postseason bid; taking on Montclair State in the ECAC Division III Metro Region Tournament. Davis most recently served as an assistant coach at Division III C.W Post and also was the head coach at CCNY from 2003-05.

The Dolphins will return their three top scorers from last year’s squad in juniors Courtney Heesemann (New Hyde Park, NY), Karissa Koerner (Bay Shore, NY) and Lauren Percodani (Staten Island, NY). Heesemann was a Second Team All-Skyline Conference selection last season after leading the team in scoring with 15.5 points per night. The 5-11 Center also led the team in rebounding average at 8.6 per night and in field goal percentage, converting 45.2-percent from the floor. Heesemann recorded nine double-doubles a season ago as a sophomore.

Koerner was the team’s top three-point shooter last season, making 39.8-percent (66-166) from behind the arc. She averaged 11.8 points per contest and was good on 81.7-percent of her free-throw opportunities. Koerner scored in double-figures 17 times last season and made at least one three-point basket in 23 of the Mount’s 28 games.

Percodani was the team’s lone First Team All-Skyline Conference selection a season ago. She averaged 9.4 points per contest and 5.1 assists per night. Percodani led the team in minutes with 35 per game, made 40.0-percent from the field and shot just over 71-percent from the foul line. She recorded 139 assists on the season and posted an assist-to-turnover ratio of 1.5.

Also returning from last season’s team are sophomore Kerry O’Connor (Bethpage, NY), junior Lisa O’Shea (White Plains, NY) and senior Ashley Farrow (Ocean, NJ). O’Connor averaged just over six points per game as a freshman last season, while O’Shea saw action in 20 games off the bench for the Dolphins. Farrow appeared in all 28 games last season and made three starts, averaging 15.2 minutes per game.

The Dolphins will also look for contributions from a list of nine newcomers in 2008-09. The group includes: Ashley Ruiz (Carmel, NY/Carmel), Joelle Denotaris (Verona, NJ/Verona), Jen Mocanu (Middletown, NJ/Middletown North), Deliliah Woods (Brooklyn, NY/St. Joseph), Brittany Griffin (Suffern, NY/Albertus Magnus HS), Erika Thompson (Harrison, NJ/High Tech), Beck Delude (South Portland, ME/Catherine McAuley), Kara McNish (Hawthorne, NJ/Hawthorne) and Marni O’Shea (White Plains, NY/Our Lady of Victory).

The game this evening tips-off at 5:30 p.m. at the APEX on the campus of Lehman College. Following tonight’s contest, the Dolphins will square-off with Rutgers-Camden on Friday night at 8:00 p.m. as part of the NYU Tip-Off Tournament.