Former East Greenwich All-State basketball player Tori Ahrens has gotten her collegiate career off to a great start. The following appears on the Franklin Pierce women's basketball team web site:

Ahrens Named NE-10 Freshman of the Week
East Greenwich, R.I., native selected after helping 23rd-ranked Ravens topple defending National Champions
RINDGE, N.H. (January 7, 2008) – Franklin Pierce University freshman Tori Ahrens (East Greenwich, R.I./East Greenwich) was named Northeast-10 Conference Freshman of the Week for women’s basketball this afternoon.

Ahrens earns the award for the first time after she posted her first collegiate double-double in Franklin Pierce’s 83-64 victory at 10th-ranked and defending NCAA Division II National Champion Southern Connecticut State University on Saturday. She notched season-high totals with 13 points and ten rebounds (six offensive) to go with a blocked shot and steal in the Ravens lone game of the week. She hit 5-of-11 shots from the field and converted 3-4 free-throws in the contest.

Ahrens has seen action in each of Franklin Pierce’s first 13 games of the season, averaging a valuable 15.1 minutes per game off the bench. Her 3.5 points and 4.3 rebounds per game is tops among Raven freshmen, with her rebounding average tied for second on the team overall, to go with eight blocked shots (2nd on the team). Ahrens is shooting 52.8-percent (19-for-36) from the field for the year.

Ahrens has led Franklin Pierce in rebounding in back-to-back games (establishing season-bests in both contests) and three times overall this season. She grabbed a team-best nine rebounds in the Ravens 70-59 win at Dominican College on December 30. Ahrens blocked a season-high three shots in a 79-70 win at Southern New Hampshire (12/12).

Ahrens is a 2007 graduate of East Greenwich High School in Rhode Island, where she was a four-year letterwinner - serving as captain as a junior and senior. She was a three-time All-State performer at East Greenwich, earning first team honors as a senior. She was a 1,000-point scorer over her career and was a member of a State Championship finalist as a sophomore.

Franklin Pierce (12-1, 7-1 NE-10), ranked 23rd in the most recent USA Today/ESPN/WBCA Division II poll, is off to the best start in program history and returns to action tomorrow when it hosts preseason NE-10 favorites Bentley College (8-4, 5-3 NE-10), among teams receiving votes nationally, at 5:30 p.m.