Laune ready to camp out in backyard
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By CURT McKEEVER / Lincoln Journal Star
Monica Laune figured she’d get some interesting reactions from her Davidson women’s basketball teammates when they learned their first road trip this season would be based at Mahoney State Park.
Staying in the cabins, mind you, not the plush lodge.
“I had a teammate ask if there’s going to be electricity,” the senior forward said.
Come on, already. Like she’d want something like that to be the lasting impression.
While the Wildcats are venturing to new parts, for Laune Friday’s game at Nebraska and Sunday’s at Creighton definitely represent homecomings.
As for staying at Mahoney Park? Well, that’s about as close to her Ashland home as she could possibly get.
“My mom thought it’d be a really good idea, and we’re going to practice at my high school, too,” said Laune, a third-team Super-State player for Ashland-Greenwood in 2006.
Both of Davidson’s games this weekend will pit the 5-foot-10 Laune against some former AAU teammates.
For Nebraska’s Nikki Bober, it also will rekindle memories of some competitive high school action, as over four years Bober’s Elmwood-Murdock team split four games against Ashland-Greenwood.
“It was always a real big battle,” Bober said of facing the Bluejays and Laune.
The two met as fifth-graders playing for the Lincoln Tar Heels and remained teammates at an older age with the Cornhusker Shooting Stars.
Laune counts Bober among the AAU teammates she got close with, noting “most of us were there for three or four years, and you spend most of your summer traveling with these people.”
But as far as having to go against Bober in high school — sorry, that’s an entirely different story.
“I was the tallest person on my team, and so it was ‘Here, you go guard the 6-3 girl,’ ” Laune said. “Not a lot of fun.”
Laune can expect nothing but good times this weekend on a trip the Wildcats are making to fulfill a promise made to her when she was being recruited.
Laune will graduate next spring with a degree in sociology, and her basketball talents have allowed her to play in 83 games over her first three seasons.
Last year, she started eight times, including the final six contests, and finished second on the team in assists. Not bad for somebody who’s more suited to play the two or three guard, but was forced to play mostly point because of injuries. As a sophomore, Laune played more in the post for the same reason.
“This year I think I finally settled in around the two-three, and hopefully I get to stay there,” said Laune, who last season scored a career-high 20 points when Davidson beat Chattanooga to end a 20-game losing streak.
Reach Curt McKeever at 473-7441 or cmckeever@journalstar.com.
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