June 11, 2007

AUCKLAND, New Zealand - - Rising senior Aroha Jennings has only been back in her native New Zealand for a little over a month, but the Lady Tiger basketball player has already played a lot of basketball since stepping foot on her native soil.

Jennings was invited to the team camp for her country's senior national team, and earned a roster spot for a five-day tour of Japan, May 20-25th. Jennings and her teammates will get some more stamps in their respective passports this week, as the Tall Ferns are venturing to Beijing, China, to participate in a four-team tournament in preparation for an Olympic qualifying tournament.

The Tall Ferns are the senior national team of New Zealand and are currently the No. 17 ranked team in the world. China is currently No. 10, while Cuba is No. 7. New Zealand will face China three times in the tournament, playing China 1 June 13th and June 18th, and China 2 June 15th. The China 2 team was added when Argentina (the No. 12 ranked team in the world) withdrew from the tournament field. On June 14th, Jennings and her teammates will face off against Cuba.

The Tall Ferns went 0-3 on their tour of Japan, which saw five different players, including Jennings, playing in their first-ever senior level international games. Those young players will have their hands full again with the China tour, as the lone remaining healthy Olympian, and starting point guard, announced that she is unable to travel to China.

All the international tours are meant to prepare the New Zealand team for the FIBA Oceanic Qualifying Series, Sept. 24-30th, which offers an Olympic berth for the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, China.

The eight-day tour in China will be followed by a six day appearance at the William Jones Cup tournament in Taiwan, July 10-16th. The National Camp will then be held July 27-29th and again Aug. 20-24th before the team tours Italy, Sept. 12-18th. Jennings will return to the University of Memphis as the team's lone senior for 2007-08.

"This is a great opportunity for Aroha to represent not only the University of Memphis, but also her country," Lady Tiger head coach Blair Savage-Lansden said. "Playing against international competition will help her not only become a better player, but will help her understand what it takes to move to the next level and she will bring all that experience back to her Lady Tiger teammates for this fall."

Jennings is one of three players joining the Tall Ferns from the collegiate ranks in the United States. She is joined by Oregon's Micaela Cocks, who like Jennings, will return to the U.S. for the collegiate season in 2007-08. Southeast Missouri State's Natalie Purcell also is part of the Tall Fern roster, after completing her collegiate eligibility back in 2005-06.

Jennings was named the Lady Tigers' Offensive MVP after leading Memphis in scoring (11.9 ppg) last year. Jennings also ranked second on the team in three--point fields goals made (33), total rebounds (162) blocked shots (14), steals (35) and assists (57) and was an 89.1 percent free throw shooter.

The website for the New Zealand national basketball program is: http://www.basketball.org.nz.