PULLMAN, Wash. (AP) - Success for the Washington State women's basketball program has been measured in tiny increments in the past decade.
Until now.
The Cougars are predicted to finish sixth in the Pacific-10 this season, heights not seen in many years.
"It is nice to see that coaches around the conference are acknowledging the hard work our student-athletes have been putting in," third-year coach June Daugherty said. "However, we plan on finishing higher than sixth."
"Our goals include winning the Pac-10 and playing at a higher consistent level night-in and night-out," she said.
The Cougars were 11-19 last season, and 4-14 in the Pac-10. That eighth place finish was their highest since also finishing eighth in 1998-99. The Cougars reached double digits in wins for the first time since the 2000-01 season, and won six more games than the year before.
They lost three seniors from last year's squad: Katie Appleton, the 12th player in school history to score 1,000 career points, plus Ebonee Coates and Heather Molzen.
They have plenty of talent coming back. April Cook led the team in scoring as a freshman with 14 points per game, while Jazmine Perkins, also a freshman, averaged 13.8 points. A third returning guard is Rosie Tarnowski, who started 20 games as a freshman. She averaged 5.3 rebounds per game.
"The guards are an amazing group, we are very athletic at the position and we have an extreme amount of depth there," Daugherty said. "We hope to use our depth to score quick baskets and wear down our opponents."
Daugherty is also expecting big things from former Washington 3A player of the year Katie Grad, who redshirted last season because of a foot injury.
Newcomers include Ki-Shawna Moore, a 5-foot-8 guard who was one of the nation's highest-rated point guards; Carly Noyes, a 6-foot-5 center out of Moses Lake, Wash., who averaged nearly 20 points, 10 rebounds and four blocks in each of her last three high school seasons; and Ireti Amojo, a 5-foot-10 guard who was a member of the German National Under-20 Team.
Stanford, California and Arizona State were picked by coaches to retain their top positions in the Pac-10.
Washington State will play 11 of its 29 regular-season games against teams that reached the postseason a year ago. They have non-conference games against Kansas State, Nebraska and at the Lady Rebel Round-up hosted by UNLV.
For the first time in school history the Cougars will play a conference team on New Year's Day, playing Oregon State in Corvallis.
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