In an effort to improve for next season, the Matador women’s basketball team has added Abby Vaughan as an assistant coach.

Vaughan, originally from San Diego, comes to CSUN from San Jose State where she was the top assistant coach during the 2006-07 season.

Vaughan said she was looking for a good fit for her own coaching philosophy and found it in head coach Stacy Schultz and returning assistant coach Carla Houser.

“Stacy is an amazing coach, and I’ll be able to learn a lot from her,” Vaughan said.

With both Schultz and Houser specializing in coaching post players, Vaughan’s experience as a college guard and a coach of guards in the past fills a need for the Matador coaching staff.

Vaughan began working in her new position June 1, just in time to help recruit new players for the 2008 season. She came into the job with a greater knowledge of the CSUN roster than most candidates. Last season, while at San Jose State, Vaughan had the task of scouting the CSUN players for their game last November, a game that CSUN won 66-63.

“The potential is unlimited,” Vaughan said of the Matador roster.

The Matador women showed some of this potential last season when they won five straight games in January before going 4-6 over their last ten, culminating in a loss to Fullerton in the Big West quarterfinals.

“Right now it’s not so much about X’s and O’s,” Vaughan said. The summer is when most of the focus is on recruiting and making sure the incoming and returning players have their school-related requirements taken care of.

The greatest need for the Matadors right now is post play, Vaughan said, which is the focus of much of the recruiting. Vaughan will be traveling all over southern California on recruiting trips, and will also be going to Arizona and Hawaii.

Six players have been recruited for the 2007-08 season, including two junior college transfers and four incoming freshmen.

Vaughan played college basketball at Boise State, where she became the school’s all-time leader in three-point field goals. She is eighth on the Boise State all-time scoring list.

Before coaching at San Jose State, Vaughan was the head women’s basketball coach at Mission Bay High School in San Diego and also coached an AAU team that won a national championship in 2004.