The crew over at White Auditorium is going to need to find a few more seats to add to the Emporia State bench this upcoming season.
The Lady Hornets signed center Negesti Taylor from Iowa Western Community College and forward Ashley Ferrell from Kilgore Community College in the late signing period and added a third post player in Newman University transfer Dava Logsdon.
The three late additions join incoming freshmen Rachel Hanf, Kelsey Newman and Jocelyn Cummings, who all signed in the early signing period.
“With our late recruiting and both of those two players, we were really focusing on defense and rebounding,” ESU coach Brandon Schneider said. “Not that they won’t contribute on the offensive end, but we’re really putting a premium on trying to get two kids that could really rebound the ball and would give us the athleticism that could guard both forwards and centers.”
With starting power forward Ida Edwards and starting center Allie Renberg graduating, Schneider needed to add depth in the low post. Edwards and Renberg combined for 21.5 points and 15.4 rebounds last season.
Taylor, who is 6-foot-1, should compete with Alli Volkens to replace Renberg as the starting center. Taylor averaged 10.2 points, 9.1 rebounds and 1.7 blocks last season for the Reivers. She was a second-team All-Region XI selection and is Iowa Western’s single season and career leader in rebounds.
Ferrell, a 5-foot-10 power forward, has a good chance to replace Edward’s as the team’s starting power forward — at least at the beginning of the season. Brittney Miller could end the season as the team’s starter, but Miller will miss the first-half of the season once again because of volleyball.
Ferrell is also a strong rebounder. She averaged 11.0 points and 8.0 rebounds last season for the Lady Rangers, and in high school, she was named the best rebounder in District 8-4A for O.D. Wyatt High School.
The fact that both Taylor and Ferrell already have college experience could give them the upper hand on contributing early in the season.
“I think it helps. That’s not to take away from our high school kids either, because we’re really counting on them to come in and contribute,” Schneider said. “Again, with the late period, if you look at our team and what we’ve lost the last two years with Michelle Stueve being such a great rebounder and then Ida being such a great rebounder, we really felt the need to get some people that would be a force on the backboards.”
While Schneider hopes Emporia State’s new players will help ESU remain the top rebounding team in the MIAA, he knows it’s going to be tough to replace the scoring of Edwards, the 2008-09 MIAA player of the year.
Edwards was a focal point of the ESU offense, but other than Miller, the newcomers are not known as big threats to score.
“With Brittney, Ashley, Dava and Jocelyn Cummings, those are four players that I think all can contribute at what we call our four-spot, which has really become a different position for us,” Schneider said. “We did a lot of things for Ida that we’re not necessarily going to do for that position year in and year out.”
Taylor signed with a St. Bonaventure out of high school, but, like Edwards, she was a non-Division I qualifier. Schneider has been recruiting her since her freshman season.
Schneider found Ferrell while recruiting another player in Texas.
Logsdon, who will be a junior, decided to transfer to Emporia State because she wanted to play for a winning program. She averaged 2.7 points and 3.6 rebounds last season for Newman. In Newman’s 72-36 loss at Emporia State, she scored two points and had two rebounds.
“We went back and watched the video,” Schneider said. “She spent a lot of time guarding ida. I was really impressed with how hard she played against Ida and never really backed down from Ida. Those are some things we liked about her.”
The Lady Hornets return eight players off last season’s MIAA championship team. Schneider’s recruiting class will once again give Emporia State a deep rotation. However, Schneider knows it will be difficult to fill the scoring void left losing 3-point ace Andrea Leiker, along with Edwards and Renberg.
“I don’t know that we’ve replaced those players,” he said. “I think when you lose three kids like that that were all terrific contributors for us, I think our team has changed a little bit. We’re not going to be quite as big overall, but I do think all five of these players definitely upgrade our athleticism. I think people will find them all to be really, really good athletes.”