LORETTO, Pa. (Nov. 1, 2012) –The Saint Francis University women's basketball team opens up its 2012-13 season Saturday with a 4 p.m. exhibition contest against McGill in DeGol Arena.
 
JUST THE FACTS
Saint Francis Red Flash vs. McGill Marlets
WHERE: DeGol Arena in the Maurice Stokes Athletics Complex
WHEN: Saturday 4 p.m.
 
SETTING THE STAGE
The Red Flash open the 2012-13 season under the direction of a new head coach as Joe Haigh takes over for
Susan Robinson Fruchtl, who left to become the head coach at Providence College. Haigh inherits one of the top offensive units in the Northeast Conference and adds Brittany Lilley (Severna Park, Md./Severna Park) and Shené Fleming, who missed all of last season due to injury. SFU ranked third in the NEC last season in scoring offense averaging 65.2 points a contest but struggled defensively allowing 70.1 points a game, more than another other team in the league. The one area the Flash defense thrived last season was taking the ball away from its opponents. SFU ranked third in the NEC a season ago in steals averaging 9.97 a contest.
 
Alli Williams (Altoona, Pa./Bishop Guilfoyle) led the Flash offense a season ago and ranked as just one of two players in the NEC to rank in the top five in rebounding and scoring. Williams averaging 16.9 points a game a 8.8 rebounds a game, while also ranked in the top five in steals with 2.97 swipes a contest. Alexa Hayward (Beaver Falls, Pa./Blackhawk) rank first in the Northeast Conference in 3-point makes and ranked in the top 10 in the NEC in 3-point percentage. Fleming missed all of last season but averaged 7.4 rebounds a game in 2010-11. Lilley also returns after missing the last season, she was the 2011 Northeast Conference Tournament MVP.        
 
GET TO KNOW MCGILL
McGill is a public university located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada with just over 25,000 undergraduates that was founded in 1821. Women's varsity athletic programs at McGill carry the nickname the Marlets while the men's programs are called the Redmen.
 
Notable alumni include eight Nobel Laureates, one hundred and thirty-two Rhodes Scholars, three astronauts, two Canadian prime ministers, eleven justices of the Canadian Supreme Court, three foreign leaders, nine Academy Award winners, three Pulitzer Prize winners, and twenty-eight Olympic medalists.
 
UP NEXT
The Red Flash opens the regular season Nov. 9 as SFU welcomes Howard to DeGol Arena for a 7 p.m. tipoff.