#1 Eagles Overpower Cards
Linderoth scores 24 in the contest

12/7/07

WASHINGTON - The Catholic University women's basketball squad (4-2) dropped a game Friday to the top-ranked team in the nation, the Mary Washington Eagles (7-0).  The Cards and Eagles are former conference-rivals and this was their first meeting since CUA switched to the Landmark Conference.  Kristen Linderoth (Spring Lake, N.J./Red Bank Catholic)  scored a season high 24 points in the contest to lead the Cardinals.  

The Cardinals hung with the Eagles in the first half using a solid defensive game forcing nine UMW turnovers. However, the Eagles continued to find the bottom of the net, shooting 60 percent from beyond the arc, resulting in a 34-23 advantage for Mary Washington.

Linderoth led the Cards with 12 points despite facing off against all-American Liz Hickey underneath. Christina Rogers (Monmouth Beach, N.J./Red Bank Catholic) and Nora Skreji (Hastings, N.Y./Hastings) both added three. The Eagles played strong down low and outrebounded the Cards 20-16 as three Cards led the squad with three rebounds apiece. CUA shot 34 percent from the field and had ten turnovers in the first.

CUA came out fired up in the second half and scored immediately but even with their renewed energy the top-ranked Eagles were just too much.  Early in the second the Cards cut the lead to seven but that would be as close as they would get as a rough stretch proved advantageous for the Eagles who quickly increased the lead to 20.   At the final buzzer the score was 82-61 in favor of the Eagles who remained unbeaten.

Linderoth led all scorers with 24 points going 8-8 from the charity stripe.  With the exception of Linderoth, the Cards played a balanced game with nine different players scoring, most five points or more.  Kerri Confrey (Pearl River, N.Y./Pearl River) was the leading rebounder with seven and Jess Schiavoni (Winchester, Va./John Handley) posted six boards.  Lisa Tracy led UMW with 19 points and Liz Hickey added 10 rebounds.  CUA was outrebounded 42-32 and shot 37 percent for the game.

The Cardinals will have a break for finals before facing Villa Julie a week from Sunday at Towson University. The game is scheduled to begin at 5 p.m.