If their few intial games are any indication of Point Park University’s women’s basketball team’s fortunes, success will be found on the backboards where rebounding occurs frequently.  After the Lady Pioneers were dominated in rebounding, resulting in the loss of thier first conference game against Walsh University, 70-63 the team dominated the boards against Penn State-Fayette, out-rebounding them 64-28 and the University of Pittsburgh (Pitt) at Greensburg by 53-31, improving their record to 5-3 overall but leaving them 0-1 in conference.    “When you play hard defense for 30 seconds, and the opposing team misses the shot, but they did get an offensive rebound, you must, then again, play defense for another 30 seconds instead of a transition to offense,”said Head Coach Sam Kosanovich.The wins came after a hard loss to Walsh on Tuesday, Nov 30. in the Pioneer’s home gym at Community College of Allegheny County (CCAC) South Campus where the Pioneers were defeated 70-63.  During this game the team was out-rebounded 46-28 and rebounding became a focus for them in their next two games.               The team totaled 15 offensive rebounds in their loss against Walsh with a score of 46-28, a statistic that more than doubled against Penn State Fayette to 33.  Leading the team with rebounds both games was junior center Joncelyn Peterkin, who totaled 12 rebounds against Penn State-Fayette and nine against Pitt at Greensburg.  Also helping the team rebound was senior guard Ashley Henderson.  “Our goal was to out-rebound our opponent,” said Henderson in an e-mail interview. Henderson was high scorer against Walsh with 26 points on the night.  Henderson also helped the team with 13 points against Penn State Fayette and 12 points against Pitt at Greensburg.  Leading scorer against Penn State Fayette was freshman guard/forward Sarah Sandin with 15 points and helped with 14 points, against Pitt at Greensburg.  Peterkin had 18 points making her the top scorer against Pitt. “We … have to play our game and dictate the tempo,” Henderson said.  The Pioneers played as a team in their wins over Penn State Fayette and Pittsburgh at Greensburg and were able to work the ball around court while everyone made contributions to the score.  Sophomore guard April Austin led the team with assists against Penn State Fayette and tied the assist lead with Henderson and freshman guard Teresa Davis, who each had with five in the game versus Pitt at Greensburg.  Their next big test will be against Houghton College on Tuesday Dec. 7 at CCAC South. “Houghton’s always tough,” Coach Kosanovich said.  Last year the Pioneers beat Houghton by a score of 70-65 led by Austin with 15 points.  This game is important for the team’s overall goal to have a winning season and make it to the American Mideast Conference (AMC) playoff tournament. The team would become one of the top six teams in their conference of 12.  According to a preseason AMC coaches’ poll the team is predicted to finish seventh, leaving them just out of reach for a playoff run.  This is a familiar situation for the Pioneers because of their seventh place finish last year.  Last year the Pioneers had their first winning season since 1993-94 and are on track to another winning season.  Henderson believes her team has what it takes.”We will make the playoffs by playing well consistently and out rebounding our opponents,” Henderson said.