Scouting St. Edward girls basketball

St. Edward Green Wave

Coach: Michelle Dawson (7th year, 89-76)

Conference: Suburban Christian (Blue)

2009-10 record: 11-15 overall

Top returning players: Vincenza Ranallo (Sr., 5-6 G), Vanessa Velazquez (Sr., 5-6 F), Callie Johnson (Jr., 5-9 G), Maddie Kerr (Jr., 5-10 G/F), Paige Gannon (Jr., 5-9 G/F), Katherine Von Ahnen (Jr., 6-0 F), Alexandria Lee (Jr., 6-1 F/C), Rena Ranallo (So., 5-7 G).

Top newcomers: Kelly Tripicchio (Jr., 5-9 G/F)

Season outlook: The Green Wave have a wealth of talent back from last year's team that was competitive but inconsistent at times. The list of returnees is led by returning all-area juniors Johnson (8.7 ppg) and Kerr (12.1 ppg. Lee (6.6 ppg) and Von Ahnen give St. Edward some size in the middle. Gannon (4.5 ppg) is a physical presence and the Ranallo sisters have experience and good ball-handling skills. "Our goal is to play smart, consistent fundamental basketball and to improve from practice to practice and from game to game.

Our strength will be our balanced offensive attack and we want to improve our defensive consistency." Dawson, whose team plays in the rough Suburban Christian Blue along with Montini, the No. 1 ranked team in the Daily Herald Top 20, would like to see her team put together complete games this season. "Whether it was turnovers or lack of rebounding or whatever, we'd be right in games and then things would happen and we'd lose," she said. "So we're really working on following through and putting together complete games." The Wave will also need to stay healthy with only nine players on the varsity roster.