Guard Anke De Mondt is in her third season with Halcon Avenida Salamanca and helped her team reach the Final of EuroLeague Women in 2009 by contributing over 10 points per game.

She also has extensive National Team experience with Belgium and has played in major tournaments such as EuroBasket Women.

Anke is kindly giving us her insight on the 2009-10 EuroLeague Women season from tip-off to the Final!

Hi everybody and welcome to my very first appearance here at FIBAEurope.com!

How are all you guys doing? I really hope you are all excited just like me about this new basketball season and especially the start of another year of action in EuroLeague Women! I also really hope so because it would be absolutely great to have so many nice fans watching games right across Europe wherever you may be and having a great time by enjoying this fantastic competition!

Spain international Alba Torrens is one of Anke's new teammates

I have of course already started the Spanish season with my club team of Halcon Avenida Salamanca. We began back on October 10 and so far we are 3-1 in the Liga Femenina. To be honest, I'm still a little disappointed with the loss we picked up at Rivas Ecopolis (another one of the Spanish teams in EuroLeague Women) but the season is still young and we're still very much growing as a team. The most important point is that we won our other games and of course we have to keep winning them!

We have a very young and new team this year. Five of us signed back from the roster that was playing in Salamanca last season. That also means that there are of course, five new faces on the team which means we still have to get to know each other better - both on and off the court.

Tonight is the very first game of EuroLeague Women this season and I'm really excited about it. I guess it is just too bad that I've been sick for the last 2 days but thankfully I am already feeling a little better and I don't have a fever anymore, so the message is pretty clear -

.........................I'll be there Jose! (ha ha!)

Jose Hernandez is of course my ex-coach and was with me during the last 2 years in Salamanca. It's going to be great to see him and also Jordi (our trainer) again. It's just too bad I didn't get to see them both last night since I was being cautious and still staying at home and resting! I have to be fully recovered for the game tonight!

It's definitely going to be a really emotional game in Salamanca for sure. After all, he may be coming with his new team Wisla Can Pack but in reality Jose is really coming home...

I also can't wait to see what the other games in EuroLeague Women are going to bring both tonight and tomorrow. I really can't wait to see if there are going to be any big surprises!

So, I all that is left is for me to wish good luck to everybody and I will no doubt speak to you all soon!

Anke