LADY COUGARS TAKING SHAPE

They've yet to play their first basketball game as the newest members of the Ontario Colleges Athletic Association but the women's team at Sault College is taking shape. After a 20-year absence, the Lady Cougars will make their return to the OCAA in the fall on an exhibition basis. They'll play home games against teams from the OCAA West Region and have a four-game, home-and-home series scheduled against their cross-town rivals, the Algoma University Thunderbirds. Algoma made its debut in the OCAA last fall and suffered the predictable growing pains by going winless in all 10 games. As for Sault College, head coach Randy Russon has been busy talking with prospective members of the Cougars, mainly student-athletes who are enrolling for the first time at the Northern Ave. School. A number of former high school players have indicated an interest in playing for the Sault College team in the fall including Lee Ann Faganely and Cara Russon from St. Mary's, Meghan Pluss and Maryann Cavaliere from Mount St. Joseph and the White Pines duo of Erica Nethery and Melissa Sawyer. Coach Russon noted that there are an additional numbers of basketball standouts who are either already students at Sault College or who are registered there for the fall but are planning on playing volleyball. Russon, volleyball coach Jeremy Murdoch and associate athletic director Tom Mauro are currently studying the feasibility of players performing in both sports.