Nov. 9, 2005
ATLANTA – The 2005-06 Georgia Tech women’s basketball team will take the court for the first time Thursday night, hosting the EA Sports Premier Players for an exhibition game. Tipoff at the Georgia Dome is 7 p.m. and there will be no charge for admission. (Fans are asked to enter at Gate D of the Georgia Dome, which is at the intersection of Georgia Dome Drive and Magnum Street, near the Red Deck).
This season’s Yellow Jacket squad includes all five starters and a total of 12 letterwinners from the 2004-05 team that went 13-14. Returning starters include senior Jessica Williams, junior Stephanie Higgs, and sophomores Jill Ingram, Janie Mitchell and Chioma Nnamaka. Other returning letterwinners include seniors Kasha Terry, Lauren Sauer, Megan Harpring and Cheytoria Phillips, junior Kentrina Wilson and sophomores Daphne Mitchell and Giuliett Ancora.
Three newcomers will make their Tech debuts on Thursday. The 2005-06 freshman class is made up of Jacqua Williams (Seattle, Wash.), Tabitha Turner (Miami, Fla.) and April Phillips (Long Beach, Calif.) Sitting out the game will be redshirt sophomore Meagan Samis, who transferred to Tech from UNC Wilmington during the offseason, and Ancora, who suffered a torn anterior cruciate ligament at the end of the summer.
The 10-member EA Sports roster includes a pair of former ACC players in Georgia Tech’s Fallon Stokes and NC State’s Terah James. Stokes finished her career on the Flats in 2004. The rest of the Premier Players’ squad is made up of Jess Strom (Penn State), Yolanda Paige and Katie Bulger (West Virginia), Shanika Freeman (Jacksonville State), Brittany Jackson and Courtney McDaniel (Tennessee), Tamia Williams (2005) and Ebony Tanner (2003). The squad has already faced ACC opponents Florida State, Duke and North Carolina, and will also face NC State, Maryland and Virginia in the next week.
The regular-season opener for the Yellow Jackets is at UAB on Nov. 18, before Tech returns home for three-straight games at Alexander Memorial Coliseum against Arkansas-Pine Bluff (Nov. 20), College of Charleston (Nov. 23) and Appalachian State (Nov. 27).
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