Liz Hauger
Women's Basketball
1996-97
Liz Hauger helped the Penguins to a 23-6 overall mark last season and the co-championship of the Mid Continent Conference. It marked the third straight season that YSU either won or shared the Mid-Con hoop title. For her play, Liz was honored as both the team and league’s “Most Valuable Player”.
A native of nearby Boardman, she starred for the Lady Spartan cage squad, averaging 16.3 points, 12.7 rebounds, 4.1 steals and 2.2 assists per game during a stellar scholastic career.
Upon her arrival on the YSU campus, she was immediately changed from a post player to a perimeter player and her collegiate career began to take off.
Her first season (1993-94) for Head Coach Ed DiGregorio was a rude awakening to the collegiate game. The Penguins struggled to a 6-20 overall mark, their first losing season after posting four straight winning seasons and six consecutive non losing campaigns. She played 23 of the team’s 26 outings, starting three while averaging 4.2 points and 2.9 rebounds.
When her sophomore season rolled around, it marked the beginning of three of the most memorable seasons in the 22-year history of the sport at YSU. As a sophomore, she averaged 12.5 points and 5.9 caroms per fray, blocking 10 shots. Liz dished out 100 total assists (the only time in her collegiate career that she had 100+ assists in a season collegiately). She had 52 steals and helped the Penguins to a 17-11 mark and the Mid Continent Conference’s tri-championship, the first of three consecutive league titles for YSU. Her efforts earned her a second-team all-conference selection.
During her junior campaign she scored 477 total points (16.4 per outing), hauling down 5.2 rebounds per outing and 81 assists en route to First Team All Conference laurels. The Lady Penguins won the Mid-Continent Conference title outright, then the league’s post season tournament. They earned the school’s first-ever NCAA Division I Post Season Tournament berth.
Hauger was rewarded by being named to the all-tournament team, as the Penguins faced one of the nation’s best, Penn State University in the first round of the tournament. That year the team was 20-9.
This past season she helped the Lady Penguins to a 23-6 mark and the co-championship (along with Troy State) of the Mid Continent Conference. They lost to Troy State in the championship game of the Mid-Con tournament. She scored 543 points, as average of 18.7 per outing while hauling in 150 caroms, an average of 5.2 per fray, 89 assists ands 65 steals. For her efforts, Hauger was a First Team Mid Con selection as well as the league’s “Most Valuable Player”.
She finished her career with 1468 total points, the all time leading scorer in Mid Con women’s cage history. Her 338 career free throws made the league’s top mark and the school’s second best all time. She currently ranks fifth on YSU’s all time scoring list, and without a doubt, will be someone by whom future student athletes and success will be someone by whom future student athletes and success will be measured.
An accounting major who earned a 3.21 cumulative grade-point average, she is on schedule to earn her degree upon completion of the current spring quarter.
