Women's Basketball

10/24 - NWC POLL: Bruins Picked to Finish Same as Last Year's Finish in Conference Race - Third

SPOKANE, Wash. - Despite having only two starters returning, the George Fox University Bruins have been picked to finish third in the Northwest Conference women's basketball race in 2002-03 in pre-season balloting by the conference's nine coaches, according to the poll released by NWC SID Steve Flegel at Whitworth College.

The Bruins have built a reputation as one of the strongest programs not only in the conference, but nationally as well, in Scott Rueck's six years as coach, during which he has directed the team to a 115-39 record. The Bruins have posted 20 or more wins in each of the last three years, including a 20-6 record last season while tying for third in the conference, and have been nationally ranked at some point during each of those three years. They received 62 points in the voting.

With All-Conference performers Heather Doud (First Team), Nicole Prazeau (First Team), and Becky Thompson (Second Team) gone due to graduation, the Bruins will look to post player Darby Cave (11.3 ppg, 5.2 rpg, .508 fg%) and wing Amy Fitch (5.6 ppg, 2.4 rpg, 2.6 apg), the two returning starters, to lead the Bruins into the thick of the NWC race this year.

Whitworth is a narrow choice by to supplant Pacific Lutheran University atop the NWC standings this season. The Pirates, who finished 2nd to the Lutes last season, picked up 5 first-place votes and 79 total points. Helen Higgs, the 2002 NWC Coach of the Year, will welcome back three starters and three key players off the bench, including second team All-NWC post Chrissy Oneal and honorable mention All-NWC forward Tiffany Speer.

Pacific Lutheran garnered the other four first-place votes and totaled 72 poll points. The Lutes must replace three all-conference performers in Becky Franza, Jessica Iserman and Jamie Keatts, but the players coming back have the valuable experience of advancing to the NCAA sectional finals in 2002.

After George Fox, Linfield College and the University of Puget Sound finished 4th and 5th in the poll with 53 and 46 points, respectively. The Wildcats return second team All-NWC center Monica Schwing, while the Loggers look forward to the return of honorable mention All-NWC forward Lindsay May.

Pacific University (36 points) and Willamette University (34 points) were 6th and 7th in the poll. Whitman College (18 points) and Lewis & Clark College (14) points round out the poll in 8th and 9th place, matching the teams' finishes last season.

The Northwest Conference once again has an automatic (Pool A) bid to the NCAA tournament. That bid will go to the winner of the NWC Tournament. The top three teams in the conference will qualify for the NWC tournament. The third place team will play at the second place team, then the winner will play at the conference champion for the right to the automatic bid. Regardless of that outcome, the regular-season winner will retain the title of conference champion.

2002-03 Women's Basketball Coaches Pre-Season Poll:

(First-place votes in parenthesis. Points awarded on 10-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 basis).