The Women’s Basketball team kicked off their 2008-09 campaign with some of the same from last year – a victory at home. Friday night saw the Lady Cats take on UMass in the first of four consecutive home games. Vermont won the game with relative ease, 83-69.It was UVM head coach Sharon Dawley’s first win in four tries against UMass, a perennial power?house in the Atlantic 10 conference.Junior forward Courtnay Pilypaitis led the Cats in scoring with 26 points and added ten rebounds in the victory. It was also a milestone night for Pilypaitis. During the second half of the game, the 2007-2008 America East player of the year reached the 1,000-point plateau. There are 16 other women that have reached this milestone in Vermont’s history, and as a junior Pilypaitis has a reasonable shot at becoming one of the program’s most prolific scorers.Senior Guard Amy Rosenkrantz scored a career-high 24 points, 12 of those points coming from beyond the three-point arc.Senior Guard Stephanie Gerardot led the Minutewomen in scoring with a game-high 29 points, ten of which came off free throws. The Lady Cats face Quinnipiac next on Saturday, Nov. 22 in the TD Banknorth Classic at the Patrick Gymnasium. The game, which starts at 1 p.m., is part of a four-game tournament.The winner of the UVM/Quinnipiac game will face the winner of the Michigan State/Dartmouth game the following day.