Kent State’s women’s basketball team will have a new leader this season.
After last season’s loss in the first round of the NCAA tournament to Notre Dame, KSU said goodbye to its best player in recent history.
Guard Katie Shumate was the leader of the Golden Flashes last season. In her fifth season with Kent State, Shumate put up 15.2 points, 7.7 rebounds and 1.5 assists per game on 41.3% shooting from the field.
Shumate led the team in minutes played, field goals made, free throws made, total points, points per game, offensive rebounds, total rebounds, rebounds per game, steals and blocks.
Right behind her in many of the categories was senior guard Jenna Batsch.
“Jenna is the most natural person to progress into that lead guard position,” Flashes coach Todd Starkey said. “She has already had that role at times in the past. From what I am seeing, she has progressed into that lead guard role for us and has a lot of confidence right now.”
In the NCAA tournament, Batsch accounted for 13 points, two rebounds and two assists on 4-of-13 shooting in the 81-67 loss at Notre Dame.
After last season’s loss in the tournament, there was no doubt in Batsch’s mind she wanted to return to Kent State for her senior year.
“My parents have always taught me growing up that there’s a certain level of loyalty that you show,” Batsch said, “especially to the school and the coaches that gave you your first opportunity to play at a Division I school and live out your dream.”
Looking forward to this season, the torch has been passed to Batsch from Shumate to lead the Flashes after her commitment to the team.
Batsch is looking to improve on a huge jump from her sophomore to junior season. She averaged 13.3 points, 2.7 rebounds and 1.8 assists in 32 starts on 41.3% field goal shooting on her way to third-team All-MAC honors. She was a top 10 scorer in the MAC last season.
She enters this season as a preseason first-team All-MAC pick. Kent State was picked as the second best team in the MAC this season with Batsch as its first option.
“I don’t think it was necessarily a choice or [Starkey] forcing me to be,” Batsch said of being a team leader. “That’s just something I realized that was needed and something I was going to have to do, whether I liked it or not. Fortunately, we have Dionna (Gray), Bridget (Dunn) and Corynne (Hauser) on the sidelines. I don’t have to do it alone.”
Part of her leadership both on and off the court is growing her play in ways that benefit the team; mostly in scoring and rebounding.
“I am a three-level scorer, so I worked on 3-point shooting, mid-range and finishing,” Batsch said. “This isn’t something you can work on in drill work, but I think this year, a step that I need to take is rebounding, which is something that is effort-based and something I am just going to have to want to do.”
Rebounding is a particularly large shoe to fill from last season — Shumate averaged five more rebounds per game than Batsch. Starkey will look to fill that hole with Batsch this season.
“From the rebounding standpoint, because Katie was one of the better, if not the best, rebounding guards I have ever coached, that’s going to probably come from multiple people,” Starkey said.
The Golden Flashes and their new commander took the floor for the first time this season Monday night in a 67-56 home loss to James Madison.
Batsch put together an eight-point, four-rebound, one-assist performance. Dayton transfer Riley Rismiller, a sophomore center, led Kent with 20 points.
Still, plenty of games remain on the schedule. Batsch and the Flashes take the floor again at 7 p.m. Thursday at home against Walsh University.
While Batsch’s team goal is to win the MAC championship again after winning the regular-season crown, her personal goal is to “hold the expectation that [she’s] a leader,” for the Golden Flashes.
“I don’t really like to put numbers on myself because I tend to do worse with that than if I didn’t,” she said. “Just really trying to lead my team and be there for the younger players and helping them step up — that’s a thing I need to do well again this year.”
John Hilber is an Akron Beacon Journal correspondent. You can contact him at jhilber@kent.edu.
