DEFENDING CIAA CHAMPION LADY BRONCOS PICKED TO FINISH FIRST IN DIVISION IN 2010-11 Alex Podlogar 10/07/10 Haywood, Jordan named to Preseason All-CIAA Team CHARLOTTE, NC – The Fayetteville State Lady Broncos are held in high regard by their peers. A year after claiming the CIAA Championship, the Lady Broncos are perched at the top of the Southern Division standings in the 2010-11 Preseason CIAA Coaches Poll, which was revealed on Thursday in Charlotte, NC. In addition, Fayetteville State’s Tiffany Haywood (Sr., Fayetteville, NC), the MVP of the CIAA Tournament, and LaQuasha Jordan (Jr., Greenville, NC), were named to the 2010-11 Preseason All-CIAA Team, which was also released Thursday. The Lady Broncos open the season on Nov. 12 at home against Frances Marion. Coming off a CIAA Championship season that included a trip to the NCAA playoffs, the Fayetteville State Lady Broncos will look to Haywood to help place FSU in the running again for a league title and a second-straight NCAA postseason appearance. Haywood led the team in 2009-10 in a variety of areas, averaging a double-double with an 11.3 ppg average and a 10.3 rpg average while starting 28 of the team’s 30 games. She will be rejoined in the starting lineup by Jordan, who also averaged in double-figures a year ago with 10.3 ppg. and connected on a team-high 51 3-pointers last season. Also in the mix will be Tierra Coleman, who returns after seeing action in 29 of 30 games last year, and Amanda Owens, who saw time in 22 games. But while their reputation precedes them, the Lady Broncos will be a club infused with several new faces. And with that in mind, Fayetteville State coach Eva Patterson-Heath knows that the team will have to come together quickly and progress throughout the season in order to reach their lofty goals. “We are younger than we were last year,” Patterson-Heath says. “I was fortunate to have inherited a veteran team that was hungry. Now we have to make sure our recruits and the returning players understand the urgency needed to repeat 20 wins, a CIAA Championship as well as qualifying for the NCAA Tournament.” The Lady Broncos welcome eight new faces to the program, among them junior college recruits Amanda Sinclair and SheQuitia Manning (Capitol Heights, MD), who were teammates at Louisburg College and will continue that trend at FSU. Sinclair averaged 6.5 points, 3.6 rebounds, 1.7 assists and 1.1 steals per game last season with Louisburg at the guard position. A native of Red Springs, NC, Sinclair will be reunited with Patterson-Heath, who coached her when both were at Red Springs High School. Manning, who will play in the post for the Broncos, averaged 10.4 points and nine rebounds per game while blocking 68 shots for Louisburg last season. Patterson-Heath's first season as head coach of the Fayetteville State women's basketball team was nothing short of a success. The Broncos won 20 games, advanced to the NCAA Division II playoffs for the sixth time and won the school's third CIAA Championship. FSU won its three games in the CIAA tournament by a combined 35 points (11.8 points per game) and held championship game opponent Bowie State to a season-low 24.5 percent shooting from the field. For 24 years before arriving in Fayetteville, Patterson-Heath was the head girls’ basketball coach at Red Springs. Patterson-Heath led the Red Devils to a 503-128 record. Her teams won 17 conference titles, 11 conference tournament championships, had 23 state playoff appearances and played in the state championship game twice. She developed 21 collegiate student-athletes, seven North Carolina East-West All Star players, three Robeson County Players of the Year and one Cape Fear Region Player of the Year. In 2009, she was in the inaugural class inducted into the Robeson County Sports Hall of Fame, and in 2006, she was chosen as the North Carolina High School Athletic Association's Female Coach of the Year.