May 14, 2003

     NEW HAVEN - A broken thumb caused Brynn Gingras to miss 10 games with the Yale women's basketball team last season, but it didn't keep the point guard from being named the captain of next seasons's squad.
     Gingras, a 2000 Lyman Hall graduate, was named Bulldogs captain after averaging 6.4 points per game and 2.1 rebounds while playing in only 17 games during her junior season. The 5-foot-7 guard started 11 of those 17 games, totaling 35 assists and 22 steals.
     "It definitely wasn't something that I was expecting," Gingras said of the captaincy. "There's six other seniors returning next year and each one has been a great player and contributed their own parts to the team."
     She led the Bulldogs (6-21 overall, 3-11 Ivy League) in steals seven games the past season and in assists five times. Her 1.3 steals per game were a team best. She was second in free-throw percentage (.788) and third in 3-point field goal percentage (.424).
     "Every year since my freshman year has been a building year in my mind," she said. "Next year we have the potential to win the Ivy League. I just want to be a leader out there and try to be as consistent as I can."
     Gingras will have a chance to serve as Bulldogs captain a bit earlier than usual, as the team is scheduled to leave Saturday for a 10-day trip to Australia to play three Australian club teams.
     Along with the three games, the team will spend four days in Sydney, travel to the city of Cairnes and spend a few days on the Great Barrier Reef.
     "It's going to be a lot of fun," Gingras said of the trip to Australia. "We're trying to improve in our time there. It's going to be fun, but we're going there to play."
     The Wallingford native started all 27 games for Yale as a sophomore and recorded double-digit scoring five times with a season-high 13 points coming against Columbia. She had seven games with five or more assists and nine games with at least three steals, including a five-steal performance against Harvard.
     During the 2000-2001 season, Gingras played in more games than any other freshman on the team and finished fifth on the team in scoring (5.8), tied for third in assists with a total of 25 and scored in double figures four times, including a 17-point effort against Brown.
     Gingras was a four-year letter winner at Lyman Hall, leading the Trojans to an SCC championship in her junior season. Gingras captained the basketball team as a senior, when she became school's all-time leading scorer with 1,209 points. That total was later eclipsed by Jenn Piazza.
     She was named all-league, all-state, all-area, and all-county as a high school senior and was the team MVP for four straight years. She was also a two-time field hockey captain.