A BENDIGO Lady Braves sometimes branded as undersized is set to become a whole lot bigger.
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The Lady Braves have signed 195cm forward-centre Ashley Rininger from the Virginia-based Liberty University.
Rininger touched down in Bendigo on Tuesday afternoon and will suit up for the first time in Friday night's SEABL away clash against the Sandringham Sabres.
She will eventually team, with the Lady Braves other import Chante Black, who is due to be in Bendigo in early May.
Rininger, who graduated from Liberty last year after five season's in the college's program, spent the last 12 months taking a break from basketball.
"It definitely made me appreciate basketball much more having that time off," she said.
"It's my first time (overseas), it's definitely exciting."
"I'm definitely more excited than nervous about it."
Rininger, who originally hails from Canton, Ohio, finished her Liberty career fourth all-time in rebounds and offensive rebounds, fourth in blocked shots and seventh in points (1380).
She was the Big South Championship most valuable player in 2015 and three-time Big South Scholar-Athlete of the Year.
The 24-year-old will be an obvious scoring threat and another solid rebounder for the Lady Braves, who have already added round one SEABL team of the week nominee Carlie Smith and Dandenong Rangers WNBL forward Chloe Bibby to their roster this season, and will soon regain Maddi Wild.
Coach Jonathon Goodman said a player who could play the four and five spots had not initially been on the Lady Braves radar, but he was excited to have Rininger on-board.
"We were always going to bring in someone, but with the loss of Caitlin McLachlan three weeks ago, it made our search go a lot bigger so to speak," he said.
"We were definitely looking at bringing in anyone who could play the two-three-four, but now we've brought in a legit four-five.”
"That will go really well with our rotation with Black and Wild and throw Smith and Bibby to the perimeter where they naturally want to play."
Career highlights for Ashley Rininger
- Finished her career ranked among the program's all-time leaders in rebounds (fourth, 952), offensive rebounds (fourth, 377), blocked shots (fourth, 156), double-doubles (fourth, 36), field goal percentage (fourth, 52.3), defensive rebounds (fifth, 575) and points (seventh, 1,380)
- 2016 Rock Royer/Mac Rivera Award
- Two-time first team CoSIDA Academic All-American (2015, 2016)
- 2016 Big South Woman of the Year
- 2016 Big South Female Scholar-Athlete of the Year
- Three-time Big South Scholar-Athlete of the Year (2014, 2015, 2016)
- Three-time Big South All-Academic Team (2014, 2015, 2016)
- Three-time VaSID Academic All-State (2014, 2015, 2016)
- Three-time All-Big South (2014 first team, 2015 first team, 2016 honorable mention)
- 2015 Big South Championship MVP
- 2015 Big South Championship all-tournament team
- 2013 Big South All-Freshman Team
- Five-time Big South Player of the Week
- Three-time Big South Freshman of the Week
- Two-time VaSID All-State (2014 second team, 2015 second team)
- Two-time Richmond Times-Dispatch All-State (2014 second team, 2015 first team)
- 2013 Seton Hall Thanksgiving Classic all-tournament team
- 2014 Subway Classic all-tournament team
- 2015 South Point Thanksgiving Shootout all-tournament team
Information courtesy of Liberty University Athletics website
