Elyse Penaluna

Penaluna was born on 23 April 1988.^[2] She is 193 centimetres (76 in) tall,^[2][3][4] and in 2007, she lived in Craigieburn, Victoria.^[4] She was attending the Swinburne University of Technology in 2011.^[5]

Penaluna plays forward.^[2] She is a "tall".^[6] In 2007, she averaged 13.6 points per game for the Hume City Broncos in the Big V league despite missing a number of games because of junior national team commitments.^[4] In 2011, she played for the Dandenong Rangers in the South East Australian Basketball League (SEABL).^[7] That season, she played as a center.^[7] In a match against the Hobart Chargers, she scored 29 points and had 6 rebounds in 17 minutes.^[7] She injured her knee in the grand final against the Knox Raiders with five minutes left in the game, which her team went on to win.^[8] Penaluna was part of the silver medal-winning Sapphire team at the FIBA Under 21 World Championships in Moscow, Russia, in her debut with the team in 2007^[4][5] She signed a contract to play basketball in Europe during the 2011/2012 season.^[8]

Penaluna had a scholarship with the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) in 2004, and played with the AIS team in the Women's National Basketball League (WNBL).^[9][10] She played for the Bulleen Boomers for the first time in the 2007/2008 season.^[4] She was with the team for the 2008/2009 season, in which the team appearing in the league's Grand Final,^[11] in which she had 15 points and 11 rebounds.^[12] She played for Bulleen again in 2009/2010, when the again team made it to the Grand Final.^[11] In an October 2009 game, she had 20 points in a 109–63 victory over the Perth Lynx.^[13] In 2010/2011, she played as a forward for the team in every game of the regular season, and averaged 7.4 rebounds per game and had a shooting percentage of 50% from the field.^[11] She played for the Bulleen Boomers again in 2011/2012,^[2][3][14] Her team won the championship that season.^[3] and by May, she had re-signed with the team for 2012/2013.^[15][16]

Penaluna made her debut with national team (the Opals) in a three-game test series against China in 2009.^[17][18] On 2 September 2009, she played in the return game against New Zealand women's national basketball team in the Oceania Championship in Canberra.^[19] In 2010, she played in the World Challenge Series against Japan women's national basketball team. The series was three games long, and one of the games was played in Geelong.^[17] She played in September 2011 three game Olympic qualification series against the New Zealand women's national basketball team.^[3][8][20] Her team won the first game. She was a major factor in the Australian's second game win where she scored 17 points.^[20] She played in a game against New Zealand in Brisbane that was part of the Oceania qualifying tournament for the Olympics.^[3] She did not start, but scored 19 points coming off the bench,^[3] 11 of which came in the third quarter.^[3] She also represented Australia at the 2011 Summer Universiade in Shenzhen, China, where Australia took home a bronze medal, beating their opposition 66–56 in the bronze medal match.^[5] She was named to the 2012 Australia women's national basketball team,^[21] but was later "ruled out through injury".^[22]