Milestone Night for Women's Basketball In Victory

It was a milestone night for the Suffolk University Women's Basketball team on Monday as they improved to a 4-0 mark in Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) play with a 79-52 victory over the Norwich University Cadets. The victory was the 300th career win for Head Coach Ed Leyden, while senior Jacqueline Vienneau (Salem, N.H.) became Suffolk's all-time career leader in assists.

The victory for Leyden is his 289th on Beacon Hill while in charge of the Women's Basketball team during his 19-year tenure. Prior to Suffolk he spent one year at Tufts University before joining the Rams.

Vienneau finished the game with four assists bringing her career total to 398 surpassing the previous mark set by Amber Conte '02 of 394.

Vienneau led the Rams with a team-high 20 points, to go along with seven rebounds and four assists. She broke the Suffolk mark six minutes into the second half when she fed junior Jennifer Ruys (Wallingford, Conn.) for a layup.

She currently leads the GNAC with 83 total assists in 16 games played on the season, while her 5.2 per game average is also tops in the league. Heading into Monday's game Vienneau ranked 17th among all NCAA Division-III Women's Basketball players in assists per game average. She currently stands seventh all-time among GNAC players in total assists. Monday's game now brings Vienneau's career totals to 1,094 career points (10th all-time in Suffolk history) while she has 471 career rebounds. She is on pace to become the first player in Women's Basketball program history to reach 1,000 points/500 rebounds/300 assists and the third player in conference history to reach all three career feats.

In Monday's game, Vienneau paced the Rams with a 5-for-6 performance from three-point land en route to her fourth 20-point effort during the 2012-13 season.

The Rams staked themselves to a 13-point lead in the first half going into the break with a 39-26 lead.

Ruys would kickstart the Rams offense with a 12-point effort in the opening 20 minutes shooting 5-for-8 from the floor.

Vienneau would take over the second half as she was a perfect 3-for-3 from beyond the arc as 10 Suffolk players would connect on at least one field goal in the period. The Rams would go on a 22-2 run over a seven minute span in the half to give themselves a 28-point lead when junior Jessica Bard (Harleysville, Pa.) connected on a jumper with a little over seven minutes remaining on the clock.

Ruys finished the game with 18 points for the Rams and seven rebounds. Suffolk held a 44-35 edge in the contest in rebounds, while they shot 47-percent as a team from the field, including 51.6-percent (16-for-31) in the second half.

Suffolk will be back in action on Wednesday evening when they travel to Anna Maria College for a 7:00pm matchup with the AMCATS in GNAC action.