Care to dance?
They could be headed to Los Angeles or East Lansing, Palo Alta or Hartford, Minneapolis or Raleigh, Austin or Pittsburgh; the Gonzaga women basketball players don’t care.
They just know they’re going dancing for the first time on the NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament stage.
“I really don’t care, it’s just about getting there,” said senior co-captain, Stephanie Hawk, the co-WCC Player of the Year. “I have a couple different pairs of shoes for dancing. I have to decide which pair to use.”
“I hope we stay on the West Coast, that would be nice to get some fans,” said Katy Ridenour, a senior co-captain from Post Falls. “I’m just excited to play, prolong the season. I want to keep playing.”
The Bulldogs are participating in March Madness for the first time ever, finally navigating through the West Coast Conference Tournament after a series of near-misses.
They defeated Loyola Marymount 64-47 Sunday afternoon in Portland to secure their dance card. They don’t find out until Monday where or whom they’ll be playing next.
“I couldn’t even guess,” GU coach Kelly Graves said. “Obviously we’re not going to be a top seed, therefore we could go wherever.”
After Sunday’s game Hawk’s thoughts turned to her former teammates, who came so close.
“I’d like to think they’re living through me vicariously, especially that team my sophomore year,” Hawk said. “We had such a great run and didn’t get picked.
“We worked so hard this year, to finally win the tournament … . Coach (Kelly) Graves has been so close, to finally seal the deal is so amazing. He was on cloud nine.”
As are all the Bulldogs.
“It feels so great,” said Heather Bowman, a freshman from Lewis and Clark, who was selected Most Valuable Player of the WCC tournament. “I’ve seen the near misses they’ve had. It’s an amazing feeling to be part of the team that does it for the first time.”
“It’s awesome to be part of it, especially with this team,” said sophomore Jami Bjorklund, who joined Bowman and Hawk on the all-tournament team. As for what the future holds, the Bulldogs are content to wait until Monday.
“We’ll just take whatever,” Bowman said. “We’ll be excited for anyone, anywhere. We’re happy to go to the NCAAs.”
With midterm tests this week, Graves is giving the team two days off. They’ll run and shoot for a day or two before starting to turn up the intensity.
“I’m studying right now,” said Bjorklund, a University High School grad. “I just found out I have a test on Wednesday.”