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[UGAdawg]

Thought I would pass this media release along. IPFW Inked 5 and 3 were from Ohio.

UGAdawg...out!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASEContact: Bill Salyer
IPFW Women's Basketball Inks Five For 2009-10 Two forwards, center, and two guards become newest Mastodons Fort Wayne, IN - IPFW head coach Chris Paul has announced the signing of a group of five players for the 2009-10 season. The group consists of Sarah Hammond of Millersburg, Ohio, Kim Kline of Nelsonville-York High School in Ohio, Fort Wayne native and South Side student-athlete Sydney Weinert, Mandi Johnson from Crawfordsville, Indiana, and Hannah Jones from Hudson High School in Ohio. "We are very excited about our 2009-10 recruiting class," said Paul. "We were able to address our needs, and become a much bigger basketball team for next season. Not only are these five excellent basketball players, but they are excellent students and people as well, which is something that is very important to us here at IPFW."

Sarah Hammond, a 6-2 forward from West Holmes High School, has been named to the All-Ohio Division II Special Mention squad three times and was recently rated the 68th best player by the Collegiate Girls Basketball Report. She has earned All-Ohio Cardinal Conference honors all three years, the last two coming via a first-team selection. Last season she averaged 12.3 points, 8.8 rebounds and 2.4 blocks per game, and was named to the AP Eastern District First Team while helping her team to the regional finals. In addition to being a stellar basketball player, she was also named to the Division II All-Ohio Third Team in volleyball. "Sarah is a solid post player who is an excellent scorer on the block," commented Paul. "Not only can she score with her back to the basket, but she can step out and knock down the perimeter jumper as well. She rebounds and defends well, and will add depth to our post position."

Kim Kline, a 5-7 point guard, averaged 20.8 points, 6.3 assists and 3.4 steals per game last season, and has been ranked inside of the Ohio Girls Basketball Report Top-25 for the 2009 season. She currently sits just a dozen points shy of 1,000 for her career with 988. She is the defending Tri-Valley Conference, and the All-Athens County Player of the Year and has been named to the All-Conference First Team during the last two seasons, along with earning First Team All-District honors in 2007-08. "Kim is a natural-born leader," said Paul. "She has an unbelievable passion for the game, and plays with an incredible amount of enthusiasm. She is very quick and can knock down the three-point shot if left open. We really look for Kim to come in here and be a spark plug for us for the next four years."

Fort Wayne native Sydney Weinert is a 6-1 forward from South Side High School, and nearly averaged a double-double with 13.5 points and 8.5 rebounds per game last season. She was recently named in the Fort Wayne News Sentinel as a member of the Fab Five, a grouping of the five best players in the Fort Wayne area, and a unanimous choice on the All-Summit Conference First Team last year. She has helped the team to two sectional championships, and a semi-state berth a season ago. "Sydney is a very athletic forward who runs the floor and defends very well," noted the IPFW head coach. "She comes from a very successful program here in Fort Wayne, and will fit in with the style we want to play. She plays very hard and is a competitor - someone who knows how to win."

Mandi Johnson, from Crawfordsville, Indiana, is an athletic 5-10 player who holds the Crawfordsville High School school record for career blocked shots. Over her three years with the Athenians, she has averaged 12.4 points, 5.3 rebounds, 1.7 blocks and 2.2 steals per game, while hitting nearly 49 percent of her three-point shots. She has been named to the All-County First Team three times, and twice to the All-Sagimore Conference First Team. "Mandi is an athletic forward/guard who can do a lot of things on the basketball floor," said Paul. "She runs the floor, jumps extremely well, posts up smaller guards and can take bigger players off the dribble. She will cause a lot of mismatch problems for our opponents over the next four years."

Rounding out the group is Hannah Jones, a 6-4 center who has been a three-year varsity player for Hudson High School. As a junior she averaged 6.5 points and 5.7 rebounds per game. She was also named to the All-Northeast Ohio Conference Honorable Mention squad. "Hannah is a tall post player who commands attention on the block," said the head coach. "She has very good footwork and has a great attitude. She is a very hard worker who is getting better everyday. She is another player who will give us the post presence we need in order to be successful."

~Dons~

Bill SalyerAssistant Director of Athletic Media Services

[gloryforixseal]

as a Nole fan this sucks. But as a basketball fan from Miami this is good. Getting their own arena built on campus will help their basketball program immensely.

Surprised they are ranked so high, though.