Photo Above: 6-3 senior center Ugo Nwaigwe, the nation's 4^th-ranked shot-blocker last season, has a wingspan of 77 inches
 
2014-2015 Preseason Prospectus I 2014-2015 Season Preview Story/Video Highlights
 
 Staten Island Advance Preview (11/13/14) - by Jim Waggoner I NEC Social Media Day Video

Staten Island Ferry - "Going Places" - photo gallery by Dave Saffran I  Media Day - photo gallery by Dave Saffran

Wagner Game Notes I Maryland Game Notes
 
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College Park, MD - The Wagner women's basketball team, under the leadership of third-year head coach Lisa Cermignano, opened the 2014-2015 season with an 84-75 loss at VCU on Fiday night, and the two-game Southern swing continues today with a 2:00 pm  meeting at No. 8/10 Maryland.

The Lady Terps went 28-7 and reached the 2014 Final Four and enters the Wagner game ranked No. 8 in the AP Preseason Poll and No. 10 in the USA Today Coaches  Preseason Poll. Maryland is competing in its first season as a member of the Big 10 Conference, having been a member of the ACC since that league's inception in 1953.
 
All-Time vs. Maryland
This is the first-ever game between the Seahawks and Lady Terps.

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Last Time Out:
Nov. 13, 2014
VCU 84, Wagner 75
Richmond, VA
The Wagner women's basketball team stood shoulder-to-shoulder with a VCU team from the powerful Atlantic 10 Conference in tonight's season opener, behind a career-high 32-point performance by sophomore guard Jasmine Nwajei (Rockaway Park. NY/Murry Bergtraum), before falling to the Rams by a count of 84-75. The Seahawks, who earned a spot in the 2014 Northeast Conference (NEC) Tournament for the first time in four years, fell into an early 19-4 hole before battling back with a 16-5 of their own which got them right back in the game, down by just 24-20. When Nwajei hit a jumpet to narrowly beat the halftime buzzer, the Seahawks were to within two points at 40-38 at intermission. The explosive 5-8 Nwajei, last season's NEC Rookie of the Year and Second-Team All-NEC selection, shot 12-of-26 from the floor, while adding five assists and four steals vs. the Rams.  Junior guard Jordyn Peck (Shaker Heights, OH/Shaker Heights), who along with Nwajei, forms  a dynamic and potent "J & J" backcourt, also picked up where she left off last season, tossing in 20 points on 6-of-14 shooting, including a tio of three-pointers, to go with four steals and two assists.Patrolling the post for the Seahawks was the squad's lone senior, Ugo Nwaigwe (Valley Stream, NY/Valley Stream South), who recorded her sixth career double-double with 10 points along with a game-high 17 rebounds. Sophomore guard Lyndsay Rowe (South Rive, NJ/St. John Vianney) chipped in with eight points on the evening for the Green & White. VCU, which is coming off of a 22-10 season that included an invitation to the WNIT, was led by forward combination of Camille Calhoun and Monnaz Finney-Smith who talled 21 and 18 points, respectively.

THUMBNAIL SKETCH OF 2014-2015 SEAHAWKS
Under the direction of third-year head coach Lisa Cermignano,  Wagner looks to build on the momentum generated a year ago when the Seahawks opened eyes by earning the program's first Northeast Conference (NEC) Tournament berth since 2010 and the most league wins since 2004. Wagner returns all five starters and nine letterwinners from a squad that finished seventh in the NEC with an 8-10 league mark. Playing a non-conference schedule that included heavyweights Kentucky, Rutgers, VCU and Pittsburgh, the Green & White were 9-21 overall. Despite the return of a host of well-honored players, as Cermignano stressed, the 2014-2015 roster is a young one, with just three upperclassmen - one senior and two juniors – along with six sophomores and three freshmen.
 
CERMIGNANO SAYS
"Coming into this season, there's just a ton of excitement, coming off of last season and having so many returners back, there should be only excitement," said Cermignano. "We do have a lot of youth on this team, we are very young. Yet, we have some talented players who last season had a taste of success and we're looking to build on that this year. With youth, every year they just get more excited, more confident and more experienced. "

 SEAHAWKS PICKED FOURTH IN 2014 NEC PRESEASON POLL
At last month's NEC Social Media Day held at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, NY, the Seahawks were picked fourth in the 2014-2015 NEC Preseason Poll
 
2014-2015 NEC Preseason Poll
1. Robert Morris (5)
2. Sacred Heart (4)
3. St. Francis Brooklyn (1)
4. Wagner
5. Saint Francis U
6. Bryant
7. Mount St. Mary's
8. LIU Brooklyn
9. (tie) Central Connecticut
    Fairleigh Dickinson

SOPHOMORE GUARD JASMINE NWAJEI '13-14 NEC ROOKIE OF YEAR, '14-15 ALL-NEC PRESEASON TEAM
The NEC's most improved team by every measure a year ago, this year's edition is armed with a 12-person roster led by dynamic 5-8 sophomore point guard Jasmine Nwajei (Rockaway Park, NY/Murry Bergtraum), who was named the 2014 Northeast Conference (NEC) Rookie of the Year, while earning All-NEC Second-Team honors. The lightning-quick Nwajei poured in a career-high 29 points against Fairleigh Dickinson (2/17/14), and reached the 20-point plateau 12 times, while also leading the NEC in assists per game (5.5) in conference games. Individually, Nwajei was named to the 2014-15 All-NEC Preseason Team and has the distinction of being the lone underclassmen named to the 2014-2015 NEC Preseason Team, along with four seniors.
 
2014-15 Preseason All-NEC Women's Basketball
Jenniqua Bailey - Bryant
Alexa Hayward - Saint Francis U
Jasmine Nwajei - Wagner
Eilidh Simpson - St. Francis Brooklyn
Gabrielle Washington - Sacred Heart
 
JUNIOR GUARD JORDYN PECK IS NEC'S LEADING RETURNING SCORER
Junior guard Jordyn Peck (Shaker Heights, OH/ Shaker Heights), combines with Nwajei, to form one of the nation's top scoring backcourt tandems. The crafty, 5-6 left-handed Peck tossed in 21.1 points per game in league play last season, which makes her the leading returning scorer in the league, and tallied a career-high 30 points vs. Central Connecticut (1/11/14) and tallied 20 or more points on 17 different occasions.
 
UGO NWAIGWE A NATIONAL PRESENCE IN LOW POST
(Say it Weeg-Way)
Senior center Ugo Nwaigwe (Valley Stream, NY/Valley Stream South) was named the league's Defensive Player of the Year last season, becoming the first Seahawk to earn this honor, while also being tabbed a member of the NEC All-Defensive Team. Enjoying a breakout season in 2013-2014, the 6-3 Nwaigwe ranked No. 4 nationally in blocked shots per game (3.80), while also leading the NEC in blocks per game (4.50), shooting percentage (.630) and ranking No. 4 in rebounds per game (10.2). In 2013-14, her 114 blocks rank No. 2 on NEC all-time single-season list.
 
NWAIGWE RECORDED PROGRAM'S FIRST-EVER "TRIPLE-DOUBLE"
On February 17, 2014, in a game seen live on ESPN3.com. Nwaiagwe registered the first recorded triple-double in school history vs. Fairleigh Dickinson with 12 points, 19 rebounds and a school-record 13 blocked shots. Nwaigwe pulled down a career-high 24 rebounds vs. Robert Morris (2/3/14) while totaling a career-high 15 points vs. St. Francis Brooklyn (2/15/14).

SEAHAWKS BOAST SOLID CORE BEYONE NWAJEI, PECK, NWAIGWE
Another lefty, 5-7 guard Lyndsay Rowe (South River, NJ/St. John Vianney), was a consistent, durable force in a freshman season where she averaged 7.1 points while averaging 31.8 minutes per game while playing all 40 minutes in five games. Redshirt-sophomore, Jazmine Hamlet (New York, NY/Francis Lewis), a 5-7 guard, averaged 3.7 points and hit for a career-high 10 in three different games.
 
Sophomore forward Jackie Dluhi (Middletown, NJ/Middletown South) is a rugged 5-11 force who saw action in 27 games as a freshman. Sophomore guard Maria Conyers-Jordan (Philadelphia, PA/The Friends' School) showed flashes as a freshmen a year ago. The 5-8 wing totaled career highs of nine points and seven rebounds at NJIT (12/30). 
 
Junior Tessa Wade (Penn Valley, PA/Lower Merion), a 5-8 guard who saw action in 18 games last season, provides further depth in the backcourt. Up front, 6-1 Taylor Butigian (Rockaway Park, NY/Christ the King) displayed a soft shooting touch while showing physicality in averaging 3.1 and 2,8 rebounds per game, respectively. She scored a career-high 14 points vs. VCU (12/1/13) and ranked No. 3 in blocked shots per game (1.6) in conference play.
 
PROVEN PLAYERS BACK
 All told, the Seahawks return the NEC's top two scorers in Nwajei - 21.9, Peck - 20.3), top rebounder (Nwaigwe -10.2), top assist leader (Nwajei - 5.5), top field goal percentage leader (Nwaigwe - 63%), and two of the top three blocks leaders (1. Nwaigwe - 4.5 and 3. Butigian - 1.6).
 
NEWCOMERS
Wagner also welcomes a trio of talented freshmen to the 2014-2015 roster, in 6-2 forward Sofia Roma (Richmond Hill, NY/Nazareth), 5-8 guard Tanasia Russell (Vineland, NJ/Vineland), and 6-1 forward Sam Sullivan (Manasquan, NJ/Manasquan).
 
In August, Roma competed for Puerto Rico at the FIBA Americas Women's U18 Championships in Colorado Springs, CO, helped lead her talent-laden Nazareth Regional HS team to a 21-7 record and to its third straight Class "A" State Championship as a senior.
 
Russell is an explosive, athletic 5-8 shooting guard who possesses a scorer's mind-set and goes by the nickname "Pogo," a moniker that helps describe her uncanny leaping ability. Blending a wide assortment of quick moves, with tremendous court vision and a lethal jump shot, Russell ranked fifth in the state of New Jersey at 28.5 ppg.last season, while being named the South Jersey Times Salem/Cumberland County Player of the Year.
 
Sullivan was a stalwart for Manasquan HS throughout her career, totaling 1,067 points and 748 rebounds. As a senior, Sullivan averaged 12.6 points, 6.1 rebounds in helping to lead the Big Blue to a 27-6 record and the No. 2 ranking in the state of New Jersey by The Star-Ledger in the 2013-2014.
 
Follow Wagner Athletics on Twitter (@wagnerathletics) for all the latest news and updates on the athletic department, @Wag_Swagg for news and updates on the men's basketball program.