After an unseasonably warm Fall in Central Ohio, the Capital University women's basketball team is looking to turn up the heat on its opponents with the return of nine letterwinners and four starters from a team that finished last season 20-7.
No stranger to being among one of the elite teams in the nation, five-time Ohio Athletic Conference Coach of the Year and longtime coach Dixie Jeffers has another squad that is getting plenty of attention in the preseason as Women's D-III News has picked the Crusaders as its preseason No. 1 team in the nation.
The top three scorers all are back led by All-OAC First Team forward Caitlin Elsass (Batavia/Clermont Northeastern), who led the team in scoring and rebounding. Returning along with Elsass are guards in junior Caitlin Graessle (Galloway/Bishop Ready) and sophomore Kristen Richardson (Oxford/Talawanda). Graessle was among the OAC leaders in three-point shooting with a team-best 45 made three-pointers. Richardson, who started 20 games as a freshman, showed her all-around talent as she was second on the team in scoring and steals, while third in rebounds. Junior guard Heather McAlpin (Cincinnati/Colerain) is the other returning starter, who even after missing nine games with an injury last season was second on the team in assists and averaged nearly eight points and four rebounds a game.
Three-time letterwinner and the lone senior on the roster in forward Tiffany Withers (Pickerington/Pickerington Central) lead a talented group of role players that also include junior guard Katy Lafferty (Goshen/Clermont Northeastern) and sophomore guards Chelsea Ruoff (Grove City/Grove City), Abbey Winland (Zanesville/Zanesville), Audrey Mitchell (Lithopolis/Bloom Carroll) and Kyndall Mullikin (Xenia/Xenia). The Crusaders depth inside will come from three talented first-year players in Kristin Hlavin (Chesterland/West Geauga), Stephanie Meyer (Clyde/Clyde) and Christine Schwartz (New Bremen/New Bremen) that headline a skilled freshman class.
As standard, Capital will play one of the nation's most competitive schedules with non-conference games against nationally ranked Manchester (Ind.) and Washington (Mo.) along with a challenging OAC schedule that includes fellow national powers, Baldwin-Wallace and Wilmington.