Ashley Ford enters her fourth season as a assistant coach for head coach Cindy Fisher and the Torero women's basketball program. Ashley will be responsible for assisting in guard development, day to day operations and she will have a major role in recruiting efforts. In her fifth season with the program, coach Ford led USD to an unprecedented fourth consecutive 20-win season, as USD posted a 25-7 overall record, finished second in the WCC at 14-4 and USD made its fourth consecutive trip to the WNIT. USD managed to secure a pair of home postseason games, defeating Long Beach State in the first round, before losing to eventual WNIT champions UCLA in round two. Under her tutelage, the senior class was able to graduate with an overall four-year mark of 97-25. In her fourth season at USD, Ford helped lead USD to an overall record of 24-9, the second most wins in program history, and reached the Sweet 16 round of the WNIT for the second time in three years. USD opened the season with a perfect 15-0 record, which led to the programs fist-ever national ranking of No. 24 in both the Associate Press and Coaches top-25 polls. The 15-0 start was the best not only in program history, but for any athletic team at USD in the division I era. The WNIT appearance marked the first time in program history that USD has made three consecutive postseason appearances. In her third season on the coaching staff in 2012-13, Ford helped lead to an overall record of 22-10, the second most wins in program history, and reached the second round of the WNIT. USD also had a 12-4 mark in the WCC, good for sole possession of second place in the WCC, and San Diego managed to reach the championship game of the WCC Tournament. This marked only the second time in program history that USD has made back-to-back postseason appearances. USD did all of this despite losing a pair of 1,000-point scorers, and the team's leading rebounder from the previous season. Coach Ford helped the Toreros produced the WCC Freshman of the Year in Maya Hood, and had three total players earn All-WCC honors, highlighted by first-teamer Amy Kame. In only her second season, Ford helped the Toreros soar to new heights, and reach uncharted waters. USD posted a 26-9 overall record, and a 12-4 mark in the WCC, both win totals were program bests. The Toreros finished second place in the WCC with NCAA Tournament participant BYU, then went on to record the program's first postseason win, as USD defeated Cal State Northridge in the first round of the WNIT, 60-58 inside the Jenny Craig Pavilion. USD was not in uncharted waters, but this didn't slow down the Torero machine, as San Diego advanced to the Final Four of the WNIT. USD reached the Final Four by defeating Pacific at home, then picked up road wins against Texas Tech, and Washington, before falling to eventual WNIT champion Oklahoma State in Stillwater, Okla. This is now considered the best season in program history. Ford comes to the Toreros after serving for two seasons as a graduate assistant at the University of Nebraska. While with the Huskers as a graduate assistant, Ford helped the Huskers reach the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament in 2010 and helped lead them to a 32-2 overall record. During the 2009-10 season, she also helped the team win the program's first Big 12 Championship, and also helped the team achieve the schools longest winning streak, 30 games, and helped the team achieve a program record No. 3 national ranking. Ford was a stand-out on the Huskers women's basketball team for two seasons. As a senior in 2006-07, Ford provided excellent leadership and engineered Nebraska's drive to its first NCAA Tournament appearance in seven seasons. Her efforts included a career-high 13 points on 5-of-5 shooting from the field in NU's Senior Night win over Colorado on Feb. 27, 2007. She was a perfect 3-for-3 from three-point range and dished out a career-high seven assists in her final game at the Devaney Center, and she started in all 32 games as a senior. Ford came to Nebraska after spending her first two collegiate seasons at Cloud County (Kan.) Community College, where she averaged 14.0 points, 4.6 rebounds, 4.1 assists and 3.3 steals per game as a sophomore at Cloud County in 2004-05. She led the T-Birds in scoring, assists and steals, while ranking third on the club in rebounding. For her efforts, she earned second-team all-conference honors and was an NJCAA Region VI honorable-mention selection. She also shot a solid 34.8 percent from three-point range by knocking down 49-of-141 shots from beyond the arc. In her junior college career, Ford led Cloud County to a 40-23 record, including a 15-16 mark as a sophomore. She started all 63 games at Cloud County for Coach Brett Erkenbrack. Ford was one of only two players in Cloud County history to score more than 725 points, grab more than 250 rebounds, dish out more than 250 assists and record more than 150 steals. Ford led Cloud County to an impressive 25-7 record as a freshman in 2003-04 by averaging 9.3 points, 4.4 rebounds and 3.9 assists per game. She claimed second-team All-Jayhawk West Conference accolades and was also an honorable-mention NJCAA Region VI pick. Ford was a third-team Super-State selection as a senior guard at Lincoln Northeast in 2002-03. She enjoyed a strong senior season despite recovering from a torn ACL suffered the summer before her senior year of high school. In her final year as a Rocket, Ford averaged 15.3 points, 5.3 rebounds, 3.4 assists and 2.2 steals per game. Ford earned second-team Class A all-state honors as a junior and senior. Ford was born Sept. 3, 1985, in Fort Rucker, Ala. She earned her bachelor's degree in communication studies in May of 2008. She claimed a spot on the Big 12 Commissioner's Academic Honor Roll in the fall of 2007.
