Chargers have more depth this year

By Steve Rodewald

Journal Sports Writer

NEW ULM -- The Minnesota Valley Lutheran girl's basketball team can't wait for this season to begin. And with a solid core of returning players from last year's team that finished 22-7, 15-3 in the Tomahawk Conference, there's plenty to be optimistic about.

"I feel like we're going to have a real strong, deep team this year," coach Dave Biedenbender said. "We've got a lot of experience coming back with a couple of seniors and juniors coming back, and that experience has shown through in the practices so far."

Last year the Chargers had to replace Jessica Merseth, a four-year starter and the girls all-time leading scorer at MVL. Though they lost three key players to graduation, the cupboard is far from bare.

Senior center Eva Voss (6-foot 1) returns after averaging 7 points and 7 rebounds per game. She will be looked at to provide more scoring and be the inside presence on defense.

Junior guard Karissa Kramer will be counted on to provide leadership at point guard. She averaged 7 points per game and led the Chargers with more than 100 steals last season.

Junior Amanda Dettman returns as the top three-point threat for the Chargers. She also averaged 7 points per game. Juniors Kelsey Krohn (5'10") and Laura Hunter (5'10") saw extended action last year and will be looked to provide help inside.

"A lot of the juniors have played together since seventh grade in summer leagues," Biedenbender said. "We can kind of jump into things midstream here and they adapt to all the things we are doing offensively and defensively and you don't have to do a lot of extra teaching."

5'10" senior Brianna Czer will be looked upon to provide depth inside while junior guards Kristin Patterson, Kara Hanson and Amanda Remelle will give the Chargers their best depth in years. Sophomores Kristin Becker, Christy Meyer, Gretchen Schone and freshmen Trisha Kramer and Kara Black round out the varsity roster.

Biedenbender plans to emphasize defense and push the ball up the court as much as possible. Playing eight, nine and sometimes 10 girls each night should help the Chargers attain these goals.

"We'd like to start out the season a lot better than last year because we weren't really sure who was going to do what," Biedenbender said. "We didn't win the conference last year, and if you go down the line and ask the girls, that is what they want to do this year."

Wabasso, who won the conference last year and defending state champion, Cedar Mountain and St. Mary's look to be the Chargers' biggest obstacles in their quest to return to the top of the conference.

"The ultimate goal is to get to the state tournament, they (the girls) talked about that from day one coming into practice," Biedenbender said.

The Chargers came close to getting to state a year ago, losing by one point to LeSueur-Henderson in the Sub Section 2AA finals last year in a hotly contested came.

The Chargers open their season on Tuesday November 23rd, hosting Nicollet at 7:30 p.m.