Today’s Opponent: INDIANA FEVER

Series Notes:

This will be the first of four matchups between the two teams. Last season the Indiana Fever led the series 2-1. Alana Beard averaged 13.0 points and forward Nakia Sanford led with 9.3 rebounds per game for the Washington Mystics. The Fever were led by forward/guard Katie Douglas who averaged 18.0 points against the Mystics. Fever forward Tamika Catching added 15.0 points per game in the series. Indiana leads the all time record 24-11.

Series History:

	WASHINGTON MYSTICS	INDIANA FEVER
MOST POINTS	91 @ WAS 7/29/03	92 @WAS 7/29/03
FEWEST POINTS	42 @ IND 9/4/04	48 @ WAS 7/8/08
LARGEST VICTORY	89-68 @ WAS 6/7/02	69-42 @ IND 9/4/04
LAST WIN AT HOME	50-48 7/8/08	64-53 5/17/08
LAST WIN ON ROAD	68-67 5/23/04	79-68 9/2/08

Open Mic

MYSTICS HEAD COACH JULIE PLANK

On previous game against the Liberty:
"I’m happy that in the end we hit some big shots. I thought that Alana hit a big shot on the baseline as well as Lindsey Harding. I’m very excited about tonight’s win but I know that we can get a lot better. I thought that we did some adjusting throughout the game that I give the team a lot of credit for. They were switching and doing some different things early that we have not seen before. We shot 45% against a team that was holding every other team to 39%."

Friendly Foes

Guard Alana Beard and forward Monique Currie of the Mystics teamed up with forward Tamika Catchings of the Indiana Fever in the past offseason. The three of them played overseas in Poland. Mystics guard Matee Ajavon and Fever center Tammy Sutton-Brown played together this past offseason in Turkey. The two are also former Rutgers players. Beard and Fever guard Tully Bevilaqua were teammates in the offseason for the TransACT Canberra Capitals in Australia in 2005.

Grand Larceny

The Mystics are second in the WNBA in steals per game averaging 9.62 per contest. Through 13 games this season, Alana Beard ranks third in the WNBA in steals per game (2.85). In their previous win over the Los Angeles Sparks, Beard captured four steals. In 2008, the Mystics only averaged 7.1 steals per game and finished the season ranked 12th in the league in that category.