We continue our brief profiles of each member of the 2010-11 Creighton women’s basketball team. Join us each weekday from now until the women’s season opener against Liberty at the Wolfpack Invitational for an introduction to this year’s Bluejays, from freshmen to seniors.
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Jim Flanery has a solid crop of freshmen coming to the Hilltop this season. All of them have a chance to contribute early in their Creighton careers. But of the bunch, the Bluejays got a steal in Carli Tritz.
Tritz is one of those special athletes that excels at everything she wants to accomplish athletically. Although she has focused on hoops, Tritz was a star in other sports as well.
Take soccer as an example. She was able to start participating in soccer after eighth grade graduation, which allowed her to play five seasons in high school. She left the school as the all-time leader in goals (93), helping lead the team to a 64-14 record over that time.
And don’t forget volleyball. Tritz was a key player for three seasons, winning a state championship and just missing a couple more. Last season, her volleyball team set a school record with 52 wins.
But it is in basketball that the Sioux City Bishop Heelan star truly excelled. She led her team last season to a 26-1 record and an Iowa State championship, her team’s second championship in three years, averaging almost 23 points, 7 rebounds, and more than 6 steals a game. The awards just started flowing in. She was named Miss Iowa Basketball, was recognized by the Omaha World-Herald for two years straight as the Western Iowa Female Athlete of the Year, and received an honorable mention for the WBCA High School All-American Game that recognizes the top 40 seniors in the nation. She left as Sioux City’s second all-time leading scorer with 1,594 points after scoring a school record 610 points last season.
Pretty much every school in Iowa and the surrounding states recruited Tritz, but Creighton stood out among the rest. “Creighton has that great family atmosphere, I feel like I belong here,” Tritz told WBR. “When I walked on campus and took my visit, it just felt right, right away. I just think Creighton is a great education opportunity, it is close to home, and includes that Catholic education that I grew up with.”
The theme of this freshman class seems to be how well they get along with each other already, and Tritz echoes her teammates’ sentiments. “We are getting really close with each other. The six of us and the six upperclassmen, it is like we have been together for the last few years. We hang out together all the time off the court.”
As a freshman, Tritz is not afraid to look to the seniors for help as she tries to acclimate quickly to the Creighton program. “Not to be cliché about senior leadership, but it is really important. I mean Kellie [Nelson], Sam [Schuett], and Kelsey Woodard, they are a great group of girls and we are lucky to have them. They really know how to teach you to make you better.”
Tritz will need that leadership to help her meet and exceed the expectations thrust on her early in her Bluejays career. “I need to step up and get over the nerves quicker than I want to. I have to be ready to go in and make plays I’m not expected to make and just play like I did in high school.”
And watch out Creighton road opponents, because Tritz is pretty pumped about coming to your place. “I’m going to be pretty excited for the first couple of games, the Notre Dame game at Notre Dame, Kansas at the Qwest Center, the tournament in North Carolina, all those really big away games.”