Written By: NM State Athletic Dept.

DENVER, CO - The NM State women's basketball team was voted as the favorite to win the Western Athletic Conference in the 2016-17 WAC Preseason Women's Basketball Coaches and Media Poll, the conference announced on Wednesday. Shawnte’ Goff of UT Rio Grande Valley was selected as the Preseason Player of the Year.

Senior guard Moriah Mack was chosen as a member of the All-WAC First Team in both polls. The Texas native earned First Team All-WAC and WAC All-Defensive team honors in 2015-16 after she averaged 11.7 points and 5.4 rebounds to go with her 50 assists, 40 steals, and 46.2 field goal percentage.

In the head coaches poll, NM State tallied 7-of-8 possible first-place votes for a total of 49 points. UTRGV came in second with 42 points and the remaining first-place vote as Grand Canyon garnered 34 points for third. CSU Bakersfield tallied 29 points while UMKC (26), Utah Valley (23), Seattle U. (13) and Chicago State (8) rounded out the rest of the league.

In the media poll, the Aggies earned six first place votes to total 90 points which just beat out UTRGV, who earned five first place votes to finish with 88 points. The media poll was quite similar to that of the coaches poll except Utah Valley was predicted to finish fifth and UMKC in sixth. CSU Bakersfield received the only other first place vote.

Joining Mack on the preseason first-team list is senior Brianna Freeman in the coaches poll. NM State led the pack with two players selected while Grand Canyon, UTRGV and Utah Valley each received one.

In the media poll, Freeman and Brooke Salas earned second-team honors. The Aggies also tied with UTRGV for the lead with three honorees in the media poll.  Continue Reading This Post >>

Written By: NM State Athletic Dept.

LAS CRUCES, N.M. - The two-time defending Western Athletic Conference Champion New Mexico State women's basketball team announced its 2016-17 schedule, featuring 13 home contests.

Head coach Mark Trakh's Aggies return three starters and 10 letterwinners from last year's 26-5 (school record for wins) team that captured their second-consecutive WAC regular season championship (13-1 league record), WAC Tournament title and NCAA Tournament appearance.

Coach Trakh brought in a few new faces on the bench this season as well. Joining the Aggies coaching staff are Jason Glover, Ashley Ford and Blanche Alverson. Earl Lewis was also named the director of basketball operations.  Continue Reading This Post >>

Written By: NM State Athletic Dept.

LAS CRUCES, N.M. - New Mexico State head women’s basketball coach Mark Trakh completed his staff with the hiring of former Nebraska standout Ashley Ford.

Ford joins the NM State women’s basketball staff after spending the 2015-16 season as an assistant coach at Nebraska, her alma mater, where she was the starting point guard from 2005-07 under head coach Connie Yori.

“Ashley is an experienced coach, having been an assistant at USD for five years and at Nebraska for three years,” Trakh said. “She has coached and played at the highest levels. She has a reputation for being a great on-floor coach and a great recruiter. We are all very excited to have her become a part of the Aggie family.”  Continue Reading This Post >>

Written By: NM State Athletic Dept.

LAS CRUCES, N.M. - New Mexico State head women's basketball coach Mark Trakh continues to assemble his coaching staff with the addition of former Auburn standout, Blanche Alverson on Tuesday.

"We're fortunate to have Blanche as a member of our staff," Trakh said. "She was a star player at Auburn and came highly recommended at Texas Tech. Blanche has great potential to become a great recruiter as well. She has a great future and I look forward to working with her."

Alverson comes to Las Cruces after spending the last two seasons at Texas Tech University under head coach Candi Whitaker where she served as a graduate assistant.  Continue Reading This Post >>

Written By: NM State Athletic Dept.

LAS CRUCES, N.M. - New Mexico State head women’s basketball coach Mark Trakh announced the addition of Jason Glover to his staff Tuesday morning.

“I’m truly honored and excited to join Coach Trakh’s staff here at New Mexico State,” Glover said. “I look forward to contributing in any way I can. With the talent returning, on top of the freshmen class coming in, I can’t wait to get in the gym and work with this talented group and help them win another conference title.”

Glover comes to Las Cruces after spending the last three seasons in Orem, Utah, where he served as the associate head coach at Utah Valley. He comes to NM State with a plethora of experience, ranging from the prep ranks all the way up to the professional levels in both the NBA and WNBA.  Continue Reading This Post >>

Written By: NM State Athletic Dept.

LILBURN, GA - New Mexico State women's basketball assistant coach Aarika Hughes was named as one of the Women's Basketball Coaches Association's inaugural "Thirty Under 30" honorees on Friday.

"Aarika is one of the top youngest assistant coaches in the country and I'm honored to have coached her as a player and to have a relationship with her as an assistant coach," head coach Mark Trakh said. "I'm very proud of her for what she's accomplish. She's a great game-planner, runs practice very well and is one of the top recruiters in the country in my opinion. I think her potential is limitless."

Hughes has played an integral role since joining the staff in 2011, a year removed from player under Trakh at USC where she was a four-year letterwinner.  Continue Reading This Post >>

MARK TRAKH, NEW MEXICO STATE HEAD COACH: SASHA WEBER, NEW MEXICO STATE SENIOR GUARD: MORIAH MACK, NEW MEXICO STATE JUNIOR GUARD: SHANICE DAVIS, NEW MEXICO STATE SENIOR GUARD:

COACH TRAKH: Needless to say we are very excited and happy to be a part of March Madness. I felt we had a very successful season. We tied the school record for most wins in a season, tied the school record for most wins in a row. First time we've been in a tournament back-to-back since the late 80s. This is the first time we've won a tournament, our conference tournament, back-to-back since the late 80s, regular season.  Continue Reading This Post >>

CHARLI TURNER THORNE, ARIZONA STATE HEAD COACH: KATIE HEMPEN, ARIZONA STATE RS SENIOR GUARD: SOPHIE BRUNNER, ARIZONA STATE JUNIOR FORWARD: ELISHA DAVIS, ARIZONA STATE SENIOR GUARD:

COACH TURNER THORNE: Well, I can speak for our whole team and coaching staff. We're ready to play.

We've had a bit of a break here. It's been about almost two weeks since our last game, so we're excited to have an opponent. I think our region is just absolutely loaded.

Three amazing teams coming to Tempe: Obviously New Mexico State, 26-game winner, Wisconsin, Green Bay, Tennessee. So very, very excited for some fantastic basketball in Tempe, and I know just speaking for us, we're excited to play again.   Continue Reading This Post >>

The WAC regular season and tournament champion New Mexico State women's basketball team learned its opponent on Selection Monday. The 15-seeded Aggies will stay close to home as they travel to Tempe, Ariz. to take on 2-seed Arizona State at the Wells Fargo Arena.

The Sun Devils were regular season co-champions in the Pac-12 and lost to Cal 75-64 in the Pac-12 tournament's first round. The Sun Devils are 25-6 overall and 13-2 at home this season. They're led by 6-1 junior forward Sophie Brunner who is averaging 10.8 points and 7.5 rebounds per game this season. She is the only Sun Devil averaging double figures in scoring, however, ASU boasts four other players averaging at least 7.9 points per game.

The game will follow the 7 vs. 10 matchup between Tennessee and UW Green Bay which is scheduled for a 3:30 P.M. start. Tip off time for the Aggies' game is scheduled for 5:30 P.M. MDT and the game will air on ESPN2.

  Continue Reading This Post >>

Written By: NM State Athletic Dept.

DENVER, CO - New Mexico State women's basketball head coach Mark Trakh was named the Western Athletic Conference Coach of the Year once again, as announced by the conference on Monday. Joining Trakh on all-conference awards list are Sasha Weber, Moriah Mack and Brooke Salas.

The fifth year head coach was picked by his peers after guiding NM State to a 24-4 overall record in the regular-season and a 13-1 mark in conference play. Trakh also led the Aggies to 15-straight wins this season, tying the program record set back in the latter half of the 1987-88 season.  Continue Reading This Post >>