She was named captain by her teammates heading into this season.

She started every game last season for the Panthers as a freshman.

This season she will be relied upon, along with the other five sophomores on the team, to lead Eastern into the postseason tournament.

Ellen Canale sat down with Associate Sports Editor Marco Santana on Tuesday and talked about Italy, Halloween and Mario Kart.

THE TEAM WENT TO ITALY OVER BREAK. WHAT WAS THAT LIKE?

It was amazing.

It’s one of those countries that growing up you always say you want to travel to, oh Italy, you’ve got to go there. To go there, to have it paid for, to have no worries and everything is taken care of for you, it was such an experience to just be able to go and enjoy.

All we had to do was play a couple of games, and obviously we love basketball, so it was a win-win for us. Everything that we saw, the culture and the history, I love history and different cultures, I’m such a creep about those, I love it.

So going over there I was in love. Every site, every person, I just sat and watched, it was so amazing.

YOU LIVE WITH ALL THE OTHER SOPHOMORES. WHAT’S IT LIKE?

It can be good and bad.

You spend so much time together. I mean, we have a lot of outside friends.

But there’s no one that are your teammates. You’re with each other all the time so it almost makes sense to just live together.

It can be good and bad. You come home from a bad practice and someone at practice pushed you down.

You’re like “I don’t want to talk to you right now, I don’t want to look at you.”

And then there’s the times you come home and you’ve had a great practice and everyone’s pumped and excited and everyone’s smiling and the house has got music on.

It’s just like back home. You live with a family. They’re my family here. You have a certain sense of security when you live with people like that.

YOU WERE VOTED CAPTAIN. WHAT WAS YOUR REACTION?

It was really nice. We vote for captain on our team and then (head coach) Brady (Sallee) takes it into consideration and decides who he wants to be captain.

It was really nice.

He told me in an individual meeting that a lot of my teammates voted for me and it was nice to know that people respected me and see me as someone they would like to see as their leader.

HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE THE WAY YOU PLAY YOUR GAME?

Aggressive. High energy.

I could get away with a little bit more (in high school).

Here I take pride in the fact that I get on the floor and get after loose balls.

I hustle and I work hard.

I get really easily excited. So those are the things that I think are the best about my game.

THAT AGGRESSIVE PLAY GETS YOU CALLED FOR A LOT OF FOULS.

(Sallee) has several times told me that he would like me to be in the game a little bit more.

He used to say there’s a reason that I get to start and play.

So if you can just stay in a little bit longer, that would be great for you as a player and us as a team.

And I would like to stay in the game. It’s not fun starting every game and averaging less minutes than a lot of people on the team.

It’s really frustrating.

I really would like to work on that.

WHAT ARE ROAD TRIPS LIKE WITH THE TEAM?

Fun.

We’re a fun group of girls.

That is one thing we got lucky with. A lot of girls go away and it’s hard.

We have grueling hours, grueling practices.

We practice a lot. You know, 2.5 to 3-hour practices. It’s not easy to do.

To have fun, since we’re such a fun group of girls, it really takes a lot of the stress and the fact that you’re hurting and you’re tired and all those things.

On road trips, we have a blast.

We love to sing, we love to play video games.

We’re big gamers, too.

I have a PSP.

We’ll play Grand Theft Auto and we’ll kill each other. Or we’ll play NBA Streetball and we’ll have tournaments and brackets. It gets really intense and people get kind of upset about it.

It’s a pretty big deal for us.

WHO WOULD YOU SAY IS THE BEST GAMER ON THE TEAM?

Overall, Rachel is a freak about video games. She loves video games.

She’s got Playstation in her room.

But when it comes to N64, Lindsey (Kluempers) dominates.

She is so good. We play Mario Kart.

We were Mario Kart for Halloween. We all dressed up in our own characters. Because we play all the time.

We don’t have that much free time but when we do, we’re usually Mario Kart’ing.

I was Bowser, Lindsey was Donkey Kong, Rachel was Yoshi and (Megan Edwards) was Princess.

People get so upset, it’s so funny.

Lindsey dominates at N64. No one can beat her in racing.

I don’t even play against her.

I’m like, “I’m not playing if Lindsey is playing because it’s not even fun.” Because it’s not even fun because you can’t beat her and you have to settle for second.

And I don’t like that.

I think Lindsey never went out as a kid. I swear. She’ll tell me I’m wrong, I’m wrong, I’m wrong. But I swear, she never left her living room.

She was never the kid who went outside and played on her bikes. She was stuck to that TV.

She had to have been, she’s so good.

She is like “No, I went out, I was fun, I was a kid.”

There’s no way you’re that good (if) you rode your bike.

WHAT WAS IT LIKE GROWING UP IN A BIG FAMILY?

We’re very passionate.

Every one of my family members are pretty much exactly like me.

I am my mom’s mini-me.

My mom has 11 brothers and sisters.

We’re this huge, big, crazy family. We always get together and play the accordion, dance around and be goofy.

I don’t (play the accordion) my uncle does, but we dance and we sing.

(The family) is small on my dad’s side (three aunts and uncles) but it’s huge on my mom’s side.

They all pretty much live in the Michigan area.

Every holiday, every birthday we’re there and we’re crazy and we’re fun.

My friends from back home they love my family.

There were many times when my friends were like “you want to go to the movies?”

I was like, “Nah, I’m going to my family’s house.”

I was that girl, I guess.

WHAT 3 HISTORICAL FIGURES WOULD YOU WANT TO MEET?

I guess one that I would pick, this sounds goofy but I have a poster of her in my room, Amelia Earhart.

I think she’s really tough, she was cool.

I have a Microsoft poster and it says “Think different.” She was just pretty big time.

Bill Clinton. I would like to sit down with him. I think he would be really interesting to talk to.

Her name is Elizabeth Cady Stanton. She’s a feminist from the late-1800s. She seemed like quite a nut. I’d like to see her in person to see what she was really like.