RENO, Nev. – A new era of Nevada Wolf Pack women's basketball is set to begin this week as first-year head coach Amanda Levens and her team gear up for the start of the 2017-18 season.
 
Levens takes over at the helm of the program in 2017-18, replacing former head coach Jane Albright following her retirement. Levens spent the past five seasons as an associate head coach at Arizona State and helped lead the Sun Devils to four 20-win seasons and a Pac-12 regular season championship in 2015-16. Levens does have head coaching experience as well as she led the program at Southern Illinois, Edwardsville during its transition to Division I from 2008-12. During that four-year span, Levens went from five wins in her first season to 18 wins in her final season. She is also no stranger to the Wolf Pack as she served as an assistant coach under former head coach Kim Gervasoni from 2003-08.
 
Along with Levens the rest of the coaching staff are all new faces as well. Laura Gonsalves, a Sparks native, enters her first year as an assistant coach and previously worked with Levens as an assistant at SIUE. Shannon Gholar also has ties to Levens after she worked as a graduate assistant during Levens' tenure at Arizona State. She brings four years of Division I coaching experience with her between Vermont and Davidson. Sybil Dosty rounds out the three assistants and played college ball under Pat Summitt for two seasons at Tennessee before transferring to Arizona State where she earned both her bachelor's and master's degrees.
 
Nevada saw improvement last season, going from five wins the previous year to 11 wins. A bulk of the team returns, including three starters in senior guard T Moe, senior forward Teige Zeller and junior forward AJ Cephas. Another junior forward, Terae Briggs, also returns after starting in 15 games during her first season with the Wolf Pack. Two newcomers join the squad as well in 2017-18 with freshman Janelle Sumilong and junior Delaney Gosse, a Wolf Pack track & field student-athlete, coming on board.
 
GUARD
The guards position is an interesting one because the Wolf Pack returns most of its guards from last season, however it needs to fill the scoring void left by Stephanie Schmid and Riana Everidge. Schmid and Everidge were the only two Nevada players to average points in double figures in 2016-17 so the Pack will need its veterans to step up and fill that void.
 
One player who could answer the call is senior Halie Bergman. Bergman has played two seasons with the Pack after beginning her collegiate career at Pacific and enjoyed her most successful campaign last year. Bergman notched career highs in many offensive categories, including averaging 6.6 points per game and knocking down 31.8 percent of her three-point shots. Fellow senior Ashlee Jones is another shooter the Wolf Pack has on its roster. Jones has battled injury in recent years but she has the ability to be a pure scorer, which she put on display during her sophomore season in 2014-15, averaging 5.2 points per game. Junior MorningRose Tobey and Janelle Sumilong are an additional pair that could open the scoring up for the Wolf Pack.
 
At the point Nevada should have something that hasn't quite been there in recent years, depth. Levens will have a veteran presence to go to in Moe, who began her time at Nevada in 2012, but will also have junior Jade Redmon and sophomore Camariah King at her disposal. Both Redmon and King fought injury last season with King missing the entire 2016-17 season and Redmon only playing in a handful of games. Moe figures to be the starter heading into the season after setting a career high in assists last year with 112 and will be the Pack's best shooter from the free throw line as she hit 81.4 percent last year.
 
FORWARD
Perhaps the deepest position on the floor for the Wolf Pack, the forwards bring a ton of experience and solid play with them. Zeller, Cephas and Briggs could all be thrown into the mix of starters. Briggs is Nevada's leading returning scorer after averaging 8.5 points per game in her first season with the Pack. She's one of the best in the Mountain West as well in grabbing offensive rebounds as she ranked fourth in the league.
 
Cephas is arguably the Pack's best all-around post player with the ability to score, rebound and block shots. Her 50 blocked shots last season were fourth most in a single season in program history and her 1.7 blocks per game average was third-best in the league. Cephas also posted 8.2 points per game and 7.5 rebounds per game, ninth-best in the MW, and led the team with five double-doubles. Nevada has an added member to this group as well as sophomore Kristin Dearth will be eligible to play after transferring from Seattle a year ago.
 
The Wolf Pack opens its season with a tough test right out of the gate as the team travels to Salt Lake City to take on Utah this Friday, Nov. 10. The home opener will be two days later on Nov. 12 with a 2 p.m. game against Portland State. Nevada's game in Reno against 11-time National Champion UConn on Nov. 28 at 6 p.m. highlights the schedule. The conference opener will be Thursday, Dec. 28 at home against Fresno State.
 
Season and single game tickets are on sale now by calling (775) 348-PACK, visiting NevadaWolfPack.com or stopping by the ticket office inside Lawlor Events Center.