Written By: NM State Athletic Dept.

LAS VEGAS, NV - The NM State women’s basketball team was voted as the favorite to win the Western Athletic Conference in the 2015-16 WAC Preseason Women’s Basketball Coaches and Media Poll, the conference announced on Wednesday.

Junior forward Brianna Freeman also swept the honors as the WAC Preseason Player of the Year in both polls. The reigning WAC Player of the Year averaged 14.9 points and 5.2 rebounds to go with her 64 assists, 53 steals, 27 blocks and 41.9 shooting percentage last season.

In the head coaches poll, NM State tallied 7-of-8 possible first-place votes for a total of 49 points with CSU Bakersfield coming in second with 39 points. Seattle U garnered 33 points and was the only other team to receive a first-place vote. UT Rio Grande Valley tallied 30 points while Grand Canyon (27), Utah Valley (26), Missouri-Kansas City (13) and Chicago State (7) rounded out the rest of the league.

In the media poll, the Aggies tallied 9-of-10 first-place votes for a total of 79 points. The media poll was quite similar to that of the coaches poll except UTRGV was predicted to finish third instead Seattle U while CSU Bakersfield received the only other first-place vote.

Joining Freeman on the preseason first-team list are seniors Sasha Weber and Shanice Davis in the coaches poll. NM State led the pack with three players selected while CSU Bakersfield and Seattle U tied for second with two each.

In the media poll, Freeman and Weber earned first-team honors while Davis received second-team selections. The Aggies also led all teams with three honorees in the media poll.  Continue Reading This Post >>

Written By: NM State Athletic Dept.

LAS CRUCES, N.M. – The defending Western Athletic Conference Champion New Mexico State Aggies announced the 2015-16 Women's Basketball Schedule, featuring 17 home contests on the 32-game schedule.

Coach Mark Trakh's Aggies return all five starters and 12 letterwinners from last year's 22-8 team that won their first WAC Championship with a 13-1 league mark, won the first WAC Tournament title and advanced to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 1988.

The 2015-16 slate features five postseason participants from last year in non-conference play (Northwestern State, Sacramento State, Long Beach State, Fordham and New Mexico) along with traditional powers Vanderbilt and Arizona.

Then it's on to WAC play, where two more postseason participants join in CSU Bakersfield and UTRGV.  Continue Reading This Post >>

DENVER, CO - The 2014-15 academic All-WAC men’s and women’s basketball, men’s and women’s indoor track and field and men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams have been announced. A total of 276 winter student-athletes were named to the list including 20 New Mexico State student-athletes with the women's swimming and diving team garnering 13 honorees. To be eligible, a student-athlete must have completed at least one academic year, have at least a 3.2 cumulative grade point average and have participated in at least 50 percent of the team’s contests.

MEN’S BASKETBALL
Pascal Siakam, So.

WOMEN’S BASKETBALL
Brianna Freeman, So.
Sasha Weber, Jr.

WOMEN’S INDOOR TRACK AND FIELD
Alyssa Cox, So.
Akuadasuo Ezenyilimba, So.
Diana Hawk, Sr.
Gabriela Rodrigues, So.

WOMEN’S SWIMMING AND DIVING
Alissa Bezenek, So.
Abigail Broome, So.
Natalie French, So.
Josi Gabaldon, So.
Jessica Legge, Sr.
Dorottya Lennert, Jr.
Logan Morris, So.
Emily Nightingale, Jr.
Chelsey Reber, Jr.
Lauren Reifel, Jr.
Cassandra Rupp, Jr.
Kara Schweitzer, Sr.
Mackenzie Soper, Jr.

Written By: NM State Athletic Dept.

LAS CRUCES, N.M. - The Women’s Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA) announced on Wednesday that New Mexico State women’s basketball head coach Mark Trakh is one of eight recipients of the 2015 United States Marine Corps/WBCA NCAA Division I Regional Coach of the Year award, and is now a finalist for the Pat Summitt Trophy to be presented to the 2015 United States Marine Corps/WBCA NCAA Division I National Coach of the Year.

Trakh, who is the Region 7 Coach of the Year, joins a list that includes the likes of Connecticut’s Geno Auriemma, South Carolina’s Dawn Staley and Maryland’s Brenda Frese, whom Trakh faced off against in the NCAA Tournament, as candidates for the National Coach of the Year award, which will be announced during the Fifth Annual WBCA Awards Show on Monday, April 6, in the Grand Ballroom of the Tampa Marriot Waterside as part of WBCA National Convention at the NCAA Final Four.  Continue Reading This Post >>

Written By: NM State Athletic Dept.

LAS CRUCES, N.M. - The New Mexico State women’s basketball team is officially dancing for the first time in 27 years as the Western Athletic Conference regular season and tournament champions were selected by the NCAA Tournament Committee as a 16th seed in the NCAA Tournament and will face the No. 1 seed Maryland Terrapins in the Spokane Region.

The Aggies (22-7, 13-1 WAC) meet Maryland (30-2, 18-0 Big 10) in College Park, Md., on Saturday, Mar. 21, beginning at 10:30 a.m. (MDT) inside the XFINITY Center. If NM State should pull the upset they will play on Monday at the XFINITY Center against the winner of the Princeton-Green Bay matchup.  Continue Reading This Post >>

Written By: NM State Athletic Dept.

LAS CRUCES, N.M. - The New Mexico State women’s basketball team’s magical season continued on Monday after the Western Athletic Conference announced the team has picked up the conference’s coach and player of the year awards as voted on by the eight WAC head coaches.

Head coach Mark Trakh is the 2014-15 WAC Coach of the Year while sophomore Brianna Freeman has been tabbed the 2014-15 WAC Player of the Year.

This is the first time the Aggies have received either a coach or player of the year by the WAC. The last NM State head coach to garner a conference coach of the year honor was Joe McKeown who was tabbed as the High Country Athletic Conference Coach of the Year in 1988, which was also the last season the Aggies, then Roadrunners, made the NCAA Tournament.   Continue Reading This Post >>

Written By: NM State Athletic Dept.

LAS CRUCES, N.M. - New Mexico State women’s basketball sophomore Brianna Freeman continues to make her case for the Western Athletic Conference Player of the Year as the forward from Killeen, Texas, has been named the WAC Player of the Week for the second-consecutive week, the conference announced Monday.

Freeman finished with 21 points and 13 rebounds, both game highs, in an 80-60 win over Texas-Pan American on Saturday as the Aggies secured an outright conference title, their first-ever WAC regular-season championship and the first conference title for the program in 20 years.  Continue Reading This Post >>

Written By: NM State Athletic Dept.

LAS CRUCES, N.M. - New Mexico State women’s basketball point guard Shanice Davis has been named the Western Athletic Conference Player of the Week for the week of Jan. 12-18 by both the conference and College Sports Madness, each entity announced Monday.

The junior transfer from Killeen, Texas, led the Aggies to a couple of WAC victories last week after marking career highs in both points and assists. She finished the week averaging 22.5 points, 5.5 rebounds, 5.5 assists and 2.5 steals per game while shooting .455 from the field and .313 from 3-point land.

“Shanice did a great job this week, scoring 32 points against Bakersfield and making many big shots against Seattle while setting up teammates with eight assists,” Aggie head coach Mark Trakh said. “She has had a great season for us and has been a bright, great floor general and leader. We’re very proud of what she has accomplished thus far this season.”  Continue Reading This Post >>