They’re contenders
Whitworth women’s basketball coach Helen Higgs has plenty of reasons to be optimistic.
Four reasons are returning starters Tiffany Speer, Sarah Shogren, Dani Bielec and Wenchi Liu.
Another reason is the young talent behind them.
But Higgs, entering her second decade with the Pirates, is also realistic.
“This might be the best team I’ve coached but I don’t think it’s a shoo-in that we can win the league,” she said. “This league is really good.
So good, in fact, Northwest Conference coaches spread first-place votes among four schools in the preseason and just six points separated the top three teams, defending co-champions Puget Sound and Whitman and Whitworth, last year’s runnerup with an 18-6 record.
That’s two 3-pointers.
Whitworth certainly has enough talent to make up that difference.
It starts with Speer, a two-time conference Player of the Year. The 5-foot-10 forward from Snohomish averaged 21.5 points and 6.3 rebounds last year.
“I don’t think she acts like there is a lot of pressure on her,” Higgs said. “There is a challenge to live up to that.
“I expect a lot out of her. The thing we’d like to see her do a little bit more of is rebound but Sarah Shogren is so good at that sometimes I think that is a place Tiffany can relax and rest a little bit.”
Shogren was an all-league first-team pick last year after averaging 18.1 points and a league-high 11.4 rebounds, a great number for the 5-9 forward out of East Valley who missed six games with an injury.
“She’s starting to get more notice,” Higgs said. “She did live in Tiffany’s shadow a little bit but I think they’re two of the best players we’ve had on our team and they’re playing at the same time. She’s just a competitor. I’d like to see her go through a season healthy and show, ‘This is who I am and what I can do.’ “
Higgs said Bielec and Liu are “as good as any guards in the conference.”
Bielect averaged 11.4 points and had 74 assists and 78 steals. Lui averaged 6.7 points and had 62 assists and 42 steals.
“They’re very different players but they can both score and both are great defenders,” Higgs said. “Why they get overlooked is they’re willing to give up some of their game for the team. They understand Tiffany and Sarah are very good and they love to get them the ball.”
After the four seniors the remaining roles have yet to be defined, although Kristie Coppin, a 5-11 sophomore out of Mountlake Terrace, starts at center. She had two starts last year.
“Their supporting cast is talented, we’re just kind of inexperienced,” Higgs said. “We’re pretty deep so it’s really hard. They bring different things. You’ll see different faces in different situations. One thing that is really exciting is we have three local starters and three more local players coming off the bench.”
The reserves include Emily Hendrickson, who played at Freeman but attended Gonzaga last year, freshman Holly Ridings, an All-Greater Spokane League player at Shadle Park, and Teresa Zeitler of Medical Lake who red-shirted last year because of a knee injury.
“We are talented enough we should be vying for conference championship and we want to qualify for the NCAA tournament,” Higgs said.
The trouble is UPS is always tough and Whitman, picked to finish last a year ago, returns all five starters from Coach of the Year Michelle Ferenz’s surprising co-champions. The Loggers were 23-5 and advanced to the NCAA Tournament by winning a coin flip with Whitman.
But Whitworth will be in the chase with Higgs, a three-time coach of the year who has a career record of 152-103.
The Pirates open this weekend in Ohio at the Wilmington Tip-Off Tournament. Wilmington is the defending NCAA Division III national champion.
“They gave us some respect,” Higgs laughed, “we’re playing Defiance, another Ohio team that’s really good.”
Their home opener is Dec. 1 against Eastern Oregon.