GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. – Second year head coach
Jessica Yonkers and her Golden Eagle women's basketball team are poised to open their 2019-20 season with two games this week. CU will welcome Grace Christian University to Mol Arena this Thursday at 7 pm for their season opener and then hit the road for a 1 pm matchup on Saturday against Grace College in Winona Lake, Indiana. Live links to follow along with every game will be available at https://cugoldeneagles.com/schedule
.aspx?path=wbball.
Opponent: Grace Christian
Date: October 24, 2019
Time: 7:00 p.m. EST
Location: Grand Rapids, Michigan
Opponent: Grace College
Date: October 26, 2019
Time: 1:00 p.m. EST
Location: Winona Lake, Indiana.
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Year Two
Head coach
Jessica Yonkers is entering her second season here at Cornerstone. Coach Yonkers and the Golden Eagles are looking to build on a 2-28 record from last season and are projected to finish tenth in the WHAC. CU, led by Yonkers, are set for the next step in building the program back up and will be an intriguing watch this season.
New Faces Join Young Team
Last season, Cornerstone had a remarkable 11 new players join the varsity program. This season, the Golden Eagles welcome four new faces to the program through recruitment. Freshmen
Skylar Scholten,
Kennedy Helderop,
Kaycee Sluiter and
Kendall Krupiczewicz join the Cornerstone squad for this upcoming year. Overall, this is a young Golden Eagle team, with
Broghan Gamble being the only senior this year.
Key Losses
Four seniors concluded their time with the Cornersonte program after the 2018-19 season, leaving CU with some holes to fill. The Golden Eagles will have to replace two of their leading scorers in
Taylor Richards (10.0) and
Mya Udell (8.6). Udell also led the CU with 2.2 assists per game last season, while Richards averaged 4.3 rebounds, second most on the squad. Cornerstone will also have to replace the veteran leadership and contributions of
Lexi Boven and
Rachel Chriss who have graduated out of the program.
Scouting Grace Christian
The Tigers of Grace Christian finished last season with a 16-16 record and an 8-4 record in the NCCAA Division II. They boast an experienced squad that only graduated one senior. Grace averaged 61.3 points per game last season and made just over 7 three pointers a game (7.1). Grace returns their entire starting five and will be led by their leading scorers sophomore Bre Harris (12.5) and senior Miranda Carlson (12.3). Top rebounder Ashley Hoek returns for her sophomore season after averaging 8.4 boards as a freshman. Expect a strong Tigers squad looking for revenge after a 64-63 loss at the hands of Cornerstone last season.
Scouting Grace College
The Grace College Lancers went 18-16 last season and finished with a 10-8 record in the Crossroads League. The Lancers graduated three seniors, one of which was leading scorer Brooke Sugg (16.2 ppg). The scoring load will now fall on the shoulders of senior Vironnica Drake and junior Kyannah Stull. The dynamic duo averaged 14.8 and 10.1 points per game last season. The pair look to be doing just that as Stull put up 28 points and Drake added 18 in Grace's 73-52 victory over Cincinnati Christian to open their 2019-20 season. The Lancers look to be a squad that will fire away from deep, putting up 21 three's in their first game. They were paced by Stull who went 5-7 from downtown en route to her 28 points. Grace will be looking for a repeat of their last game against Cornerstone, where they were 68-51 victors.
