Stellar careers end for Whit women
A school-record 22 wins. Two NCAA Division III All-Americans. Wins over tough West Region opponents. A second-place finish in the Northwest Conference, whose champion has made the Elite Eight two of the past three years.
All of that wasn’t enough to earn the Whitworth Pirates an at-large berth in the NCAA Division III women’s basketball tournament.
“It’s disappointing and it makes me think we need to revisit the selection process as Division III schools,” veteran Whitworth College coach Helen Higgs said. “I want to be fair, but I think (the process) is unfairly weighted against Western schools, but not intentionally so. We are so isolated. California is our closest, and they are as isolated as us. The next closest schools are in Minnesota and Wisconsin.”
The lack of a berth also means the most successful women’s senior class in the school’s post Title-IX hoop history has finished their careers. The quartet of seniors (four-year letter winners Tiffany Speer, Sarah Shogren and Dani Bielec along with two-year starter Wenchi Liu) has built memories for Higgs she’ll never forget, and which she shared.
On Liu, a 5-foot-4 point guard who attended St. George’s High before playing two years at Willamette: “The thing I notice most is she is very inclusive, she just brings people together. She brought our team together, she includes people, she makes things fun.”
Bielec, a 5-6 shooting guard from Coeur d’Alene High who led the NWC in steals as a junior and was second as a senior: “The memory for Dani, that just makes me laugh, and kind of shows who she is, goes back to our tournament this year. I knew she was going to have to guard the great guard from Concordia the second night, so I had her guard a gal the first night who didn’t shoot so she wouldn’t have to work so hard two nights in a row. She comes over and asks ‘Can I guard someone else? I’m bored.’ Who tells their coach they’re bored on defense? That just shows how competitive she is.”
Shogren, a 5-9 forward from East Valley High who set a school record with 20 rebounds in a game last year and was a third-team Division III preseason All-American this year: “I go back to her freshman year where she was obviously a great player who was going to end up playing a lot. She got injured and I was starting a senior in front of her and, when she came back, I asked her to come off the bench and she was like ‘OK, I’ll be the super sub.’ That’s the attitude she’s always had. To be the best she could be in whatever role she was in. Also, I’ve never heard anyone say anything bad about her.”
Speer, a 5-10 forward who is second all-time in Whitworth women’s scoring, a two-time MVP of the NWC and a first-team preseason All-American this year: “I think everybody understands what a great player she is, but I don’t think people got to see her in practice, to see how encouraging she was and how much she helped her teammates. That’s really an area of growth for her in her four years here. She grew into a complete teammate and player.”
Catching up
Valley Christian grad Carli Smith, a junior at Seattle Pacific, was named Great Northwest Athletic Conference co-player of the week after equaling the school record with 22 rebounds Saturday. Smith had 28 points on 13-of-22 shooting and 28 rebounds in two games and is averaging 10.9 points and 10 rebounds. She is also shooting 56 percent from the field and 84 percent from the foul line. The fourth-ranked Falcons (23-2) clinched the league title for the third consecutive year and are in line to host the NCAA II West Region tournament. … Katy Rogers, a junior from Central Valley and transfer from Spokane Community College, is averaging a little less than five points for Carroll College, which won the Frontier League championship. The Saints, ranked 17th in the NAIA Division I rankings, won both the men’s and women’s title for the first time in school history. Carly Syverson, another CCS transfer from Sunnyside, Wash., is the starting point guard for the women, averaging almost 10 points and five assists… . Going into their season finale Tuesday night The Masters College was 23-4 and second in the GSAC with a 16-3 record. Rebecca Gimeno, a freshman from St. George’s, is averaging 7.1 points off the bench, playing 20 minutes a game. Her twin sister Angela was injured early in the season.
Winding down
There is a milestone on the horizon for Idaho as the Vandals close out the regular season at home on Friday against Utah State. Heather Thoelke, UI’s lone senior, is nine points short of reaching 1,000. She has started all 79 games of her Vandals career. … Six times in league play the Vandals had just five players score, going 3-3. … UI opened the league season with a 63-62 win at Utah State. … The Aggies, who won five games last year, have their first winning seasons since going 14-10 in 1979-80. … The Vandals are locked into a third or fourth seed for the Big West tournament in Anaheim, Calif., giving them a bye in the first round. … Long Beach is at Santa Barbara on Saturday in a showdown for the No. 1 seed, but if the 49ers keep the Gauchos from winning their 10th straight title a number of tiebreakers come into play to determine the top spot.
Eastern closes the season on the road and Thursday’s game at Northern Arizona is critical. The Eagles are tied with the Lumberjacks in the battle for the third or fourth seed for the Big Sky tourney next weekend. The third seed opens against the Sacramento State-Montana State survivor, the fourth gets dangerous Idaho State. … An Eagles win makes Montana the host for the tourney even if the Griz lose to Weber on Saturday night, assuming EWU beats Sac and Weber beats MSU. … EWU is at Sac on Saturday afternoon. The Hornets, with seven overall wins and three in conference, have equaled its total wins in both categories since 2001. They shocked the Eagles 72-68 in overtime at Reese Court. NAU lost 65-33 in Cheney.
After missing nine games because of a broken wrist, Ferris grad Brynn Kelly is playing big minutes for Davidson but has not moved back into the starting lineup. However Kelly, who averaged 4 points and 4.1 rebounds in 18 games during the regular season, helped the Wildcats (17-10, 14-6) set a school record for conference wins. Davidson is the second seed for the Southern Conference tournament at regular-season champion Chattanooga. … Katy Baker, a freshman from Lewis and Clark, averaged 3.8 points in 27 games for Southern Utah (11-16), the sixth seed for the Mid-Continent Conference tournament in Tulsa this week. … Ali Camp, a sophomore from Cheney, is stuck behind several underclassmen and has only played in eight games for Wyoming, 15-10, 6-6 in the Mountain West Conference. The Cowgirls were 10-18, 6-8 last year when first-year coach Joe Legerski was coach of the year. UW has one more week of play before the conference tournament. … The regular season ended at 2-21 for Utah Valley State but Ferris grad Courtney Lynn had a good season. She averaged 4.4 points and had 86 assists, starting every game. She is the first four-year player for the school. Her freshman sister Meredith Lynn had a career-high five points in the finale and averaged 1.1 point in 17 games. Utah Valley State hosts the Division I Independent Women’s Basketball Championship and will open against Texas A&M Corpus-Christi on Thursday.