'Lot of wins' expected from W. Hoops recruits

You would think the holiday season came early for Kelly Greenberg, considering how excited the Penn women's basketball coach is about her new recruiting class.

And judging by the impressive numbers that her five new players have put up in high school, there is reason for some summertime optimism on 33rd Street.

Ashley Gray, Jessica Hosenbold, Monica Naltner, Lauren Pears, and Joey Rhoads are the five members of the Class of 2007 that will grace the Palestra this fall, and Greenberg summed up her opinion of the quintet's future impact thus: "A lot of points, a lot of rebounds, and a lot of wins.

"We are really excited about the five of them," she said. "We ended up getting the recruits we really wanted."

The incoming class has a very eastern feel to it. Two players hail from Pennsylvania, one from Connecticut, one from New York, and one from Ohio.

"That's the way it happens,"Greenberg said, admitting that "the last four years, we've focused on recruiting the top Pennsylvania players."

One of the two new Commonwealth natives is Joey Rhoads, who attended Germantown Academy in Huntindgon Valley. A three-time Inter-AC All-League selection, she broke the all-time Patriots' scoring record, held by another name familiar to Quakers basketball fans, Diana Caramanico.

Rhoads "just has had a phenomenal career at Germantown Academy," Greenberg said. "She's a point guard, scorer, can really shoot the three."

Rhoads joins Maria DiDonato, Karen Habrukowich, and Katie Kilker in representing the Philadelphia region for the Quakers.

Lauren Pears comes to Philadelphia by way of Mechanicsburg and Cumberland Valley High School. She totaled 840 career points and would have likely topped 1,000 had she not blown her knee out during her senior season.

"Lauren's one of those real heady players, great awareness of the court on both ends," Greenberg said. "She already in my mind is going to be one of the smartest players that I've coached with Penn."

Monica Naltner brings four varsity letters in basketball at St. Ursula Academy in Cincinnati to the Palestra. She averaged 15.3 points per game in her four years and won All-Cincinnati honors her senior year.

"I think she's going to be a steal for us," Greenberg said. In addition to her scoring abilities, the Penn coach praised Naltner for being "a banger, too, which we are always looking for."

Jessica Hosenbold comes to Penn from Dix Hills, N.Y. She was Suffolk County's leading scorer twice, and was a Newsday All-Long Island honoree in her senior year, averaging 26.5 points and 10 rebounds per game.

"She shoots threes from NBA range with ease," Greenberg said. "She's going to fit right in with Mikaelyn [Austin] and Karen [Habrukowich]."

Greenberg conceded that finding good long-range shooters is no easy task.

"Some years it's impossible to find one and then all of a sudden you'll be out recruiting and there's a bunch of them," she said. "It goes in cycles."

Ashley Gray rounds out the Quakers' Class of 2007. The Stamford, Conn. native "is probably our most sought-after recruit," Greenberg said. Gray averaged a double-double over her entire high school career, scoring 1,392 career points and pulling down 957 rebounds, and was twice named All-New England for her efforts.

"She, as we all do, has pretty high expectations for her freshman year," Greenberg said.

The bar appears to be officially set.

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