11/8 - NWC PRE-SEASON POLL: Bruins Picked 5th in Conference Race That Could be Crowded
NWC Women's Basketball Pre-Season Poll
NEWBERG, Ore. - With three starters back, including one Honorable Mention All-Conference performer, the George Fox University Bruins have been picked to finish 5th in the 2004-05 Northwest Conference women's basketball race in a pre-season poll of the league's nine coaches.
The conference race is expected to be one of the closest in years, as four different teams received first-place votes. The top two favorites, co-defending champions University of Puget Sound and Whitman College, finished only two votes apart.
George Fox, coming off a 13-12 season and a 5th-place finish at 7-9 in the NWC, received 37 votes in the poll. The biggest loss for the Bruins is post Darby Cave, a Second Team All-Conference selection after averaging 12.8 points and 7.4 rebounds a game with the league's 2nd-best shooting percentage (.569). Also gone are wing Amy Fitch (5.7 ppg, 3.7 rpg, and a team-leading 3.6 assists per game) and part-time starting point guard Melissa Alexander (3.9 ppg, 2.2 apg).
Honorable Mention All-Conference wing Kellie Thomas leads a group of five returning letterwinners, bringing back averages of 12.8 points, 4.4 rebounds, and 2.9 assists. Wing Liz Clark averaged 7.3 points and 8.5 rebounds a game, the latter figure second-best in the league. Part-time point guard Kim Leith (11.8 ppg, 3.0 rpg, and a league-leading 1.96 three-point field goals per game) is expected to become a full-time shooting guard this season.
GFU coach Scott Rueck brings a 139-61 record (.701) into his ninth season, all winning ones, as the Bruins' coach.
Puget Sound, which advanced to the NCAA sectional finals last winter and finished with an overall record of 23-5, picked up three first-place votes and 76 total points to edge Whitman. The Loggers return All-NWC forward Lindsay May and All-NWC guard Kilty Keaton. Head Coach Suzy Barcomb led UPS to its second NWC title last winter. The Loggers won a coin flip with Whitman to garner the NWC's automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.
Whitman, which had been picked to finish last in the 2003-04 coaches' poll before earning a co-championship with UPS, also received three first-place votes and had 74 points. All-NWC guard Katie Patneaude returns to lead the Missionaries, as does honorable mention guard Laura Vertatschitsch. Michelle Ferenz was named the 2004 NWC Coach of the Year after guiding Whitman to its first NWC title since 1988.
Whitworth picked up two first-place votes and 69 points. Senior forward Tiffany Speer, the two-time NWC Player of the Year, leads a list of four returning starters, which also includes First Team All-NWC forward Sarah Shogren.
Pacific Lutheran University was fourth in the poll with one first-place vote and 59 points. The Lutes welcome back Second Team All-NWC players Aundi Kustera and Kelly Turner. PLU is looking for its fifth NWC title since 1998 under head coach Gil Rigell.
Fifth through seventh places in the poll were packed even tighter than first through fourth. After George Fox's 37, Linfield College was sixth with 35 points, and Pacific University was seventh with 34 points, welcoming back First Team All-NWC post DeeDee Arnall. Willamette University (21 points) and Lewis & Clark College (13 points) rounded out the poll in eighth and ninth place, respectively.
For the second year in a row the Northwest Conference will not use a conference tournament to decide the automatic (Pool A) bid to the NCAA tournament. That bid will go to the conference champion and winner of the regular season.
Several teams begin play on Nov. 19, including the Bruins, who will be in the Seattle Pacific University Tournament in Seattle, Wash., Nov. 19-20, taking on two NCAA Division II teams. The Bruins meet Central Washington University Friday at 1:00 p.m. and Seattle Pacific Saturday at 5:00 p.m. The home opener is set for Dec. 9 vs. Western Baptist College at 7:00 p.m.