By Mark Curnutte
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Guards Amy Waugh and Reetta Piipari are all that remain from the Xavier women's basketball Elite Eight NCAA Tournament team of 2000-01. How far the Musketeers go in this NCAA Tournament, their fourth berth in five years, will depend on Waugh and Piipari.

Xavier's Amy Waugh reacts to questions during a press conference at the Cintas Center Sunday evening. (Steven M. Herppich photo) | ZOOM |

Xavier (20-9) earned a No. 10 seed in the Midwest Region and will play California-Santa Barbara on Sunday at Lubbock, Texas. UCSB (26-4) is the No. 7 seed, and the winner will play the winner of the Texas Tech-Southwest Missouri State game.

The Gauchos won their seventh consecutive Big West Conference tournament Saturday night.

Waugh led the Musketeers in scoring at 19 points a game. She leads the nation with 3.6 3-pointers a game.

Piipari averaged 13.7 points and led the team with 151 assists. Both were named first-team in the Atlantic 10.

"The two seniors have been great with leadership," XU rookie head coach Kevin McGuff said after the pairings were announced. "They've been through the wars of the NCAA Tournament. It's going to be their job and my job to show the rest of the team what it takes."

After missing the first 19 games of her sophomore season because of a ruptured Achilles' tendon, Waugh returned to help XU make its Elite Eight run. She averaged 11.3 points in the tournament and had 14 points, five assists and two steals in the regional semifinal upset of Tennessee at Birmingham, Ala. The Musketeers lost to Purdue by 10 points in the regional final.

"I think about (2001) all the time," Waugh said. "We should have done something more. We still have something to prove."

Piipari started all 34 games as a sophomore that year and averaged eight points and 6.3 assists in the tournament..

The team's only two seniors have had plenty of help in turning the team around from its 12-19 finish in 2001-02.

Tara Boothe, a 6-1 forward from Highlands High School, was the A-10 rookie of the year and averged 16 points and 7.9 rebounds. Boothe was joined on the all-rookie team by Kristy Wallner, who averaged 4.7 points and 5.8 rebounds.

Santa Barbara coach Mark French, who has built a West Coast power in 16 years, said he doesn't know a lot about Xavier - but he does know about the senior guards.

"They have tremendous guard play," French said Sunday night. "They have a good, young post player (Boothe). They play a pretty good inside-out game."

Xavier had to sweat out the week before Selection Sunday. It had lost 52-48 to Rhode Island in the semifinals of the A-10 Tournament March 8.

Still, XU was confident.

"I felt like a No. 10 seed was where we should be," McGuff said.

E-mail mcurnutte@enquirer.com