WOMEN'S BASKETBALL YSU starts season at Saint Louis tonight

The Penguins' opponents return five letterwinners and one starter.
ST. LOUIS -- The Youngstown State women's basketball team opens its 30th season and second under coach Tisha Hill with its first-ever meeting against Saint Louis of Conference USA opponent at 8 tonight in Bauman-Eberhart Center.
The Penguins (4-24 in 2003-04) return 10 letter winners and four starters. There are five seniors (Barb Fabianova, Tara Fleming, Cathy Hanek, Jen Perugini and Melissa Tarrant); three juniors (Michelle Holmes, Nicole Neila and Aliyah Sabree), and two sophomores (Kristy Gaudiose and Ashlee Russo) among the returnees.
New to the team this season are freshmen Lauren Branson, My'Kea Cohill and Jessica Schloemp.
Two new assistant coaches were also added to the Penguins' staff -- Alvis Rogers and Stacy Krueger.
Opposition
The Billikens, who are coming off an 80-69 loss to Missouri-Rolla and a 61-56 win over Missouri-St. Louis on Nov. 5 during the preseason, went 8-19 overall last season with a 2-12 mark in Conference USA.
The Billikens return five letter winners and one starter from last season. Yanique Javois returns as the Billikens' leading scorer with 5.5 points per game. Saint Louis has also added six newcomers to its roster.
The Penguins and the Billikens have two connections. Hill played at Indiana while Saint Louis coach Jill Pizzotti was an assistant, while YSU assistant Kara Wile was a standout point guard for Pizzotti at Saint Louis from 1996-2000.
Before her appointment at YSU, Hill, a native of Cleveland Heights, spent two seasons as an assistant coach and recruiting coordinator at Ball State. Hill was also an assistant coach at Virginia Tech from 1997-2001, at UW-Green Bay from 1995-97, and was a graduate assistant at Indiana from 1993-95.
So far
In their lone exhibition game of the preseason, the Penguins defeated the Premier All-Stars, 74-70, last Saturday. Fabianova led four Penguins scoring in double figures with 18 points. Hanek and Russo each chipped in 12 points while Perugini added a double-double with 11 points and 11 rebounds.
Youngstown State returns to Beeghly Center for its home opener against Ohio on Nov. 23 at 5:15 p.m. as part of a doubleheader with the YSU men's basketball team. It marks the first time the Penguins and Bobcats have met since the 1992-93 season.