Date: Sunday, January 19, 2003

WOMEN'S BASKETBALL RECORD WINNING STREAK ENDS VS. WESLEYAN

MEDFORD – While the University of Connecticut Women's Basketball team was setting a new NCAA Division I record with its 55^th straight win on Saturday, one of its former players was watching her current team's more modest but record-setting streak come to an end.

In her first 10 games as Head Coach at Tufts University, Carla Berube, a member of the first National Championship team at UConn in 1995, guided the Jumbos to a 9-1 record. After losing their season opener on November 22, the Jumbos went on a nine-game winning streak that replaced eight-game streaks by the 1985-86 and 1990-91 teams in the Tufts record book. The winning streak ended on Saturday with a hard-fought, 79-76 overtime loss to #24 Wesleyan University at Cousens Gym in Medford.

Hired at Tufts last June, Berube took over a team that finished last in NESCAC a year ago and lost its top three scorers. The new-look Jumbos play tenacious defense and balanced offense led by freshman guard Jessica Powers from Long Island. The nine wins so far match the Tufts team's total from a year ago, when it finished 9-14 and 1-8 in the league. The record-setting win came in an 86-56 victory against Connecticut College in the NESCAC opener on Friday night in Medford.

Powers leads the Jumbos with 14.5 points per game, while sophomore forward Allison Love from Duxbury is scoring 10.2 points per game with a team-high 6.2 rebounding average. She had 21 points and 11 rebounds in the loss to Wesleyan. Tufts is currently ranked third in NESCAC with 52.4 points allowed per game, while they lead the league in forcing opponents into 28.3 turnovers per game.

A native of Oxford, Berube was previously an assistant coach at Providence College for two seasons. She played professionally for the New England Blizzard of the American Basketball League prior to becoming a coach. During her four years at UConn, the team posted a 132-8 overall record and she scored 1,381 points, currently 17^th all-time. Her 138 games played for the Huskies is second all-time behind Asjha Jones' 144 from 1999-2002.

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