CLEMSON, S.C. — The 45-minute bus rides to places like Hermitage and Sharon have been replaced by 45-minute chartered flights to South Carolina.

The Rock Box is out. In are 10,000-seat arenas teeming with raucous fans.

Life has certainly changed a lot in the last year for Slippery Rock High graduate Jence Rhoads.

The only thing that has remained the same is the No. 22 on her basketball jersey.

Now a freshman on the Vanderbilt University women's basketball team, Rhoads finds herself in the starting lineup on a nationally ranked squad.

"It's been a dream come true," Rhoads said from her hotel room in Clemson, S.C., where the Commodores will face Clemson tonight.

Rhoads was not surprised that she earned a spot in the starting five for a team that has designs on going deep in the NCAA tournament.

She enjoyed a good camp, excelled in two exhibition games and was in the starting lineup for the season opener Nov. 9 againstthe University of Alabama-Birmingham.

Her parents, Posey and Melinda Rhoads, were inMemorial Gymnasium for that games. So were her twin sisters, Karly and Kourtney, and her grandparents.

As she gazed around the arena shortly before the tip, her stomach starting bounding around like a basketball on a hardwood floor.

"I was nervous," Rhoads said, laughing. "I'm not going to lie about that."

But once the referee threw the ball in the air and once she gained possession and put the basketball on the floor, it was just another game in another gym.

Rhoads was bred for this. She lived for this moment since she made her first 15-foot jumper.

"I just tried to focus and think about my normal routine," Rhoads said. "It's a lot different than high school. Everyone here was a star. But it's still the same game that I love to play."

It's a game she played at a level few had ever seen during her days at Slippery Rock.

She scored 2,170 points in her career — a number no boy or girl had ever approached in Butler County.

She capped her senior season with a run to the PIAA semifinals, a Pennsylvania Gatorade Player of the Year Award and Butler Eagle Girls Player of the Year Award.

Rhoads had a triple-double in five of her final six regular season games with the Rockets.

But now, she's just a very good freshman on a very good team.

"I'm trying not to put too much pressure on myself," Rhoads said. "I am just a freshman. I still have a lot to learn."

In three games with Vanderbilt, Rhoads is averaging 30 minutes, 4.3 points and 4.3 assists per contest for the Commodores.

Those numbers are no surprise to Vandy coach Melanie Balcolm.

"I think Jence is going to make a big impact," Balcolm said before the season. "We've got three point guards and that's something we haven't had."

The Commodores are a very young team.

There is only one senior on the roster, 6-foot-4 star center Liz Sherwood, and two juniors, 6-1 guard-forward Christina Wirth and 5-9 guard Jennifer Risper.

The rest of the roster is made up of talented sophomores and freshmen, Rhoads among them.

"We're already really close," Rhoads said. "And I think we'll only get closer. By the time we are upperclassmen, our chemistry is going to be great."

Rhoads has found another big difference from high school to college: time management.

She starts a typical day by sprinting to class, trying to squeeze in a breakfast in between. She then gobbles down a quick lunch before going to a three-to-four hour practice, followed by dinner and three hours of studying.

Rinse and repeat.

There's not much time for her hobbies, which include Dance Dance Revolution, the board game Cranium or watchingESPN or the Food Network.

But Rhoads wouldn't want it any other way. She's living a dream.

"This is what I've wanted to do forever," Rhoads said.