HACKETTSTOWN, N.J. - The Centenary women’s basketball team finished its second successful camp in as many weeks, head coach Lorie Khalil announced. Seventy-one children grades three-nine attended the two camps, which took place from July 5-9 and July 12-16.

The Centenary women’s basketball team continued its run of successful seasons, as head coach Lorie Khalil guded the team to a 15-11 record in 2009-10, including 10-5 in Colonial States Athletic Conference (CSAC) action. CC earned a bid to the conference tournament as the fifth seed, where they knocked off three-time defending champion Cabrini in Radnor, Pa. Thanks to the win, the Cyclones earned a trip to the conference semifinals for the first time since 2000-01, when they were part of the Women's Intercollegiate Athletic Association (WIAC). Although the team lost to Gwynedd-Mercy in the next round, Centenary set the stage for an even more successful 2010-11 campaign.

The Lady Cyclones led the nation in scoring for the second consecutive season, averaging 83.0 points per contest, up from 81.5 last year. Jen Vasta led the way, recording 17.4 points, 3.7 assists, 3.7 steals and 3.4 rebounds per game. She shot 58.6 percent from the floor (184-of-314), a program single-season record and the 14th-best mark in the country. She was a three-time CSAC weekly award and Cyclone of the Week winner and was named First Team All-CSAC.

Senior Kristen Camuso averaged 17.4 points. 3.9 rebounds and 2.8 steals per contest and took home Second Team All-CSAC honors. She finished her career with 1,453 points, second-most in school history. Hannah Ally averaged 10.2 points and 4.8 rebounds and Marissa DiStasio led the team in rebounding, grabbing 9.7 boards per contest.

The Cyclones opened their season by dropping three of their first four before going on to win six of their next seven, including their first four CSAC contests. CC suffered its first conference loss with a hard-fought 93-91 contest to Neumann, when Vasta’s game-tying jumper in the final seconds hit the back rim.

A four-game CSAC winning streak by Centenary was ended by Cabrini with a 68-64 Cavaliers win in which the Cyclones held a seven-point lead with 6:20 remaining. CC then fell to Gwynedd-Mercy, 89-82 in double overtime, and Marywood, 69-58, before rebounding to win three of its final four contests to finish as the fifth seed in the CSAC Tournament.

Centenary held the lead over Cabrini for most of the contest before a late run gave the Cavaliers a one-point advantage with nine seconds remaining. But Vasta quickly got the ball to Leah Murphy, who found DiStasio wide open under the basket for the game-winning shot. Despite the loss in the next round, the Cyclones could hold their heads high after another successful campaign.

CC also achieved success off the court, as the team posted the second-best GPA in Division III. Moreofer, 16 Cyclones were named to the CSAC All-Academic Team. Vasta received ESPN the Magazine/Cosida Academic All-District 2 Third Team and Centenary Female Scholar-Athlete of the Year honors and Brittany Taylor was a Winter FAR-FAB Scholar-Athlete Recognition Award Winner.

ATLANTA, Ga. (July 20, 2010) – The Centenary women’s basketball team finished the season with the second-best team GPA in Division III, earning Women's Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA) Academic Top 25 Team Honor Roll accolades, the organization announced Tuesday.

The Cyclones posted a 3.613 team GPA, .03 shy of the first-place team, Carnegie Mellon. In 2008-09, the team finished with the 11th-best GPA in the nation to earn the Top 25 Team Honor Roll award.

“To move up to the second-place spot from being ranked 11th last year is an incredible accomplishment and a true testament of how hard the players work off the court,” said co-head coach Lorie Khalil. “It takes time management, focus and a team effort to juggle the demands of college athletics and academics and my players do an outstanding job of that. We pride ourselves on our academic excellence but we could not do it without the support of our faculty.  I know the players will aim higher next season to be No. 1 and keep striving to be the best student-athletes that they can be.”

Centenary finished the 2009-10 campaign 15-11, including 10-5 in Colonial States Athletic Conference (CSAC) action. CC, the fifth-seed, upset three-time defending conference champion Cabrini with a thrilling 67-66 win on a last-second basket by rising senior Marissa DiStasio (Norwich, Conn./Norwich Free Academy) to advance to its first conference semifinals since 2000-01, when it was part of the Women's Intercollegiate Athletic Association (WIAC).

Academically, 16 Lady Cyclones were named to the CSAC All-Academic Team and rising junior Jen Vasta (Boonton, N.J./Boonton) received ESPN the Magazine Academic All-America District 2 Third Team honors.

Founded in 1981, the WBCA promotes women’s basketball by unifying coaches at all levels to develop a reputable identity for the sport and to foster and promote the development of the game as a sport for women and girls. For additional information about the WBCA, please visit www.wbca.org.

2010 WBCA Academic Top 25 Team Honor Roll

HACKETTSTOWN, N.J. (July 1, 2010) – Centenary has named Mona Ressaissi as co-head coach of the women’s basketball team, Director of Athletics Billie Jo Blackwell announced. Ressaissi returns to the school and the squad where she competed as a player and served as an assistant coach.
 
Ressaissi was a member of Centenary’s women’s basketball team from 1995-98 and stands in third-place in the program’s record book with 1,216 career points. She was a three-year starter, earning ECAC Metro Rookie of the Year as a freshman and National Small College Athletic Association (NSCAA) All-American honors as a junior. That same year she led Division III in three point shooting, hitting at a 53.0 percent clip. She recorded five triple doubles in a single season, still a school-record for both the men’s and women’s teams, and was a two-time NJCCA All-State Team honoree.
 
Ressaissi graduated Summa Cum Laude from Centenary in 1998 with a BA in Political Science and a BA in International Studies. She played overseas for two seasons with the Eos/Malbas women’s semi-professional team in Sweden before returning home to take an assistant coaching position with the Lady Cyclones from 2000-02, where she also served as Athletic Academic Advisor.

Ressaissi earned her law degree from Rutgers School of Law-Newark in 2005 and served as the graduation speaker of her class. She has worked at Margolin & Neuner in Hackettstown since 2006 and has been an adjunct instructor at Centenary since 2000. For the past two seasons, she served as junior varsity and assistant varsity coach at Mount Olive High School.