Former Slippery Rock High star Jence Rhoads, right, embraces Rockets coach Adrienne Orris after a 2007 game. Orris is organizing a bus caravan so that fans can see Rhoads when her Vanderbilt women's basketball team plays at Duquesne Sunday.

PITTSBURGH — Jence Rhoads is coming to town — and there will be plenty of her fans to greet her.

Rhoads, a senior guard on the Vanderbilt University women's basketball team, will return to Western Pennsylvania when the Commodores visit Duquesne University at 1 p.m. Sunday.

Slippery Rock High, where Rhoads scored 2,170 points, plans to sending two or three buses full of fans to see her play.

“It started out as just kindergartners and first-, second-, third-, and fourth-graders going,” said Slippery Rock girls basketball coach Adrienne Orris. “But I had so many parents who told me they wanted to go, we expanded it.”

For $8, anyone can get a ticket and a bus ride to the game Sunday. The buses will depart Slippery Rock High at 11:30 a.m.

Those interested in attending the game can contact Orris at 724-294-2960 or by email at Adrienne_Orris@slipperyrock.k12.pa.us by Friday afternoon.

Orris said she already has handed out 200 tickets to fans planning to make the trip themselves.

“I had to call Duquesne to get more tickets,” Orris said. “It's amazing. People from Jence's class are coming home from college just to see her play.”

Rhoads was a senior in Orris' first season as the Rockets girls basketball coach.

“I never get a chance to sit in the stands and cheer, so, for me, that is going to be nice,” Orris said.

Rhoads also is happy about her return to Western Pennyslvania.

When the schedule came out and she saw the game at Duquesne, she said she got goosebumps.

It is the first time Vanderbilt has played so close to her hometown.

“I'm so pumped,” Rhoads said. “(Vanderbilt) tries to get a game close to home when you are a senior. I'm sure there will be a lot of people there rooting for us. It's going to be like a Slippery Rock home game.”

Rhoads has had a difficult senior season so far.

Even though her numbers are respectable — 11.4 points per game to go with 33 assists and 10 steals — she has battled a hamstring injury suffered in an exhibition game Nov. 9.

The injury forced her to miss two games, and Rhoads said she still is struggling with it.

“I'm still working my way to get there,” Rhoads said. “It's feeling a lot better though; it's just a long process with a hamstring injury”

Rhoads has shown signs of getting back to full strength, scoring a season-high 19 points Dec. 5 in a 70-65 upset loss to Denver.

The Commodores (6-3) have won two straight since that loss.