Jan. 31, 2006
SAN DIEGO - The San Diego State women's basketball program announced Tuesday that redshirt sophomore guard Courtney Fritz (Newberg, Ore.) has ended her collegiate career after injuring her right knee for the third time in the last 14 months. Fritz, who has torn her ACL on two separate occasions, sustained yet another injury to the same knee in last week's game at New Mexico.
"I can't tell you how much I have appreciated the opportunity to coach Courtney Fritz," said SDSU head coach Beth Burns. "She's as coachable as anyone I've ever worked with and her competitiveness, toughness and unselfishness became a standard for our team. It is with great disappointment that we make this announcement, but the bottom line is that Courtney Fritz is a winner and she will move forward from this to achieve and accomplish many great things."
Fritz played in seven games for SDSU this season, all during conference action. She was averaging 2.4 points and 1.0 rebounds per contest after returning to the court for the first time in over a year at Colorado State on Jan. 5. Her best outing of 2005-06 came against Utah, when she scored five points in a season-high 26 minutes.
"Obviously, I'm disappointed, but I have no regrets," Fritz said. "I have worked so hard in the past months to get myself back on the floor to help my team. I hope in the weeks that I was able to practice and compete, that I was able to accomplish that."
Fritz started the first four games of 2004-05, before suffering a season-ending knee injury in the final minutes of the team's game at Nevada in early December 2004. After rehabilitation, she sustained her second torn ACL this past June, which also required surgery.
As a freshman, Fritz was the only Aztec to play and start all 28 games, earning honorable mention all-conference honors. She was one of three players to average double-figures in scoring (10.0) and ranked fourth in Aztec single-season history in both three-pointers made (63) and attempted (170). Fritz was second in the Mountain West Conference in three-pointers made (2.25) and had a team-high in points in 11 games as SDSU's starting point guard.
For her career, Fritz played in 39 games and ranks fifth all-time in Aztec history in three pointers made (69) and is seventh in attempts (202).