May 7, 2008

Fort Wayne, IN - IPFW head women's basketball coach Chris Paul has announced the signing of a pair of 6-3 post players, Eva Ivanova from the College of Southern Idaho, and Laura Gerhardt from Owens Community College.

"We are very excited to have Laura and Eva join or program for the upcoming 2008-09 basketball season," said Paul. "Both bring two years of college experience and come from excellent programs; Laura from Owens Community College in Toledo; and Eva from the College of Southern Idaho. Not only are they talented basketball players, they are also excellent students, which is something that we continue to recruit at IPFW."

Laura Gerhardt average 5.3 points and 5.3 rebounds per game in addition to being named to the Academic All-Conference teams in 2006-07 and 2007-08.

Gerhardt, originally from South Milwaukee, Wisconsin, was a two-year player at Owens Community College, earning Academic All-Conference honors in both 2006-07 and 2007-08. Over her two years, she averaged 5.3 points, 5.3 rebounds, 1.0 assists and 1.2 blocked shots per contest.

Ivanova, a native of Varna, Bulgaria, started nine games in her two years at Southern Idaho, averaging 4.9 points per game as a freshman and 5.5 as a sophomore. She reached double figure scoring five times as both a freshman and sophomore, including scoring a career-high 16 points in 2007. Ivanova averaged 3.0 rebounds per game during her tenure at CSI, including grabbing 12 against Yavapai, where she also blocked a career-high five shots and scored eight points.

"We expect both Laura and Eva to have an immediate impact on our basketball program, and we are looking forward to both of them joining us at IPFW in the fall."

The pair will join Anne Boese from Indianapolis Bishop Chatard as new Mastodons for the 2008-09 season.

In 2007-08, Mastodons finished with a 12-18 overall record, falling to the eventual Summit League Champions in the opening round of the conference tournament. The team returns four of the six players that started at least 10 games last year, including Jordan Zuppe, who averaged 11.2 points per game, hitting 74-of-171 three-point field goals, a percentage of 43.3. Her percentage was the ninth best percentage in NCAA Division I, while holding the highest percentage of any Division I freshman player.

~Dons~