Nov. 15, 2007

WOMEN’S BASKETBALL: New Era Dawns for PLU Women’s Basketball

THIS WEEK: Pacific Lutheran plays at the Northwest Lutheran Invitational Tournament, hosted by Concordia University in Portland, Ore., and sponsored by Thrivent Financial for Lutherans. The Lutes open the tournament at 2 p.m. Friday against Texas Lutheran, and they play again on Saturday with the time and opponent determined by the outcome of Friday’s game.

MORE ABOUT THE TOURNAMENT: This year’s tournament is the first annual of what both Pacific Lutheran and Concordia hope to be a long-running event. The plan is that the tournament will alternate between Concordia and Pacific Lutheran. The PLU teams are scheduled to host this event next year. As mentioned, PLU plays Texas Lutheran, while the other side of the bracket features Concordia-Portland against Concordia-Nebraska. The losers of those games play at 2 p.m. Saturday and the winners meet at 6 p.m. Saturday.

NEW COACH: Pacific Lutheran opens its first season under the direction of head coach Kelly Warnke, who was hired April 30, 2007, to take over the program. A native of Casco, Wis., Warnke brings with her eight years of college assistant coaching experience in which she helped teams to three conference championships and one NCAA Elite Eight finish. Warnke started her coaching career in 1999 as an assistant coach at University of Evansville. From there she moved back to her alma mater and became an assistant coach at University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh. While serving as an assistant at Oshkosh, Warnke helped the Titans to two Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference championships (2001 and 2004). In 2005, Warnke moved to Ohio to became an assistant coach at Baldwin-Wallace College, where in the past two seasons the women’s basketball program won 46 and lost 12. Warnke played on UW-Oshkosh's undefeated 1996 NCAA Division III national championship team, on conference championship squads in 1996, 1998 and 1999, and also helped the Titans reach four straight NCAA tournaments while compiling an impressive record of 107-8.

SEASON OUTLOOK: The top returning scorers from last season’s 13-11 Pacific Lutheran team are seniors Trish Buckingham and Kyle Haag. Buckingham is a steady player who earned honorable mention all-conference honors after averaging 7.1 points and 3.0 rebounds per game. “(Trish) utilizes her strength and knowledge of the game very well,” said Warnke. “She has a passion for the game, and she’s a competitor who works hard every day in practice, and that elevates the team focus.” Haag, a 5-9 guard, is a threat from behind the three-point arc as she hit a team-high .347 percent (37-for-107) while averaging 5.5 points per game. “Kyle worked hard on her game over the summer. She is a good three-point shooter, but she has expanded her game and can get the ball into the paint and either get off a shot or dish it,” said Warnke. Returning starter Trinity Gibbons will occupy the point guard position this year. Gibbons, a junior, played in all 24 games last season, starting in 13, and she figures to play a more prominent scoring role this season. “Trinity understands what our team needs at different points in the game,” said Warnke. “Trinity as a point guard is my connection on the floor, and she wants to lead this team.” Junior post Melissa Richardson, who has been a solid defender and rebounder during her first two seasons, is the top returnee in rebounding with an average of 3.7 per game. Emily Voorhies, a 6-1 junior post who has been slowed in recent years by a rash of injuries, is poised to have a strong year for the Lutes. Sophomore Meghan Dowling, another 6-1 post, missed last season with an injury and should provide excellent depth on the front line. The Lutes will need those three, along with Buckingham, to provide a scoring threat in the low post in order to open up scoring opportunities on the perimeter. Two other juniors, Nikki Scott and Amy Spieker, will provide depth in the guard position. Scott and Gibbons are both capable of playing either guard position, and Scott averaged 3.2 points while starting nine games last season. Newcomers include freshman Ellise Parr and junior Amanda Tschauner. Parr, a freshman guard from Portland, was first team all-league at Cleveland High School. Tschauner, a junior guard, has been a goalkeeper for the Pacific Lutheran women’s soccer team and is playing collegiate basketball for the first time. The 2007-08 Lutes will have to make up for the loss of Nikki Johnson, the 2006 NWC Player of the Year. Johnson averaged 15.2 points per game and 8.7 rebounds per game last season on her way to earning first team all-conference honors. Also gone to graduation is Kezia Long, who averaged 9.2 points and 7.5 rebounds per game last season. Long leaves the program ranked third on the all-time career rebounds list with 695 in her four years at PLU. “(Opponents won’t) know what to expect from us because we are a completely different team from last year,” said Warnke. “But me not knowing exactly what we lost, I build from what we have, and I like what we have a lot.”

LUTES BEAT WESTERN: Pacific Lutheran defeated Western Washington last Friday night, Nov. 9, in an exhibition game played in Bellingham. The Lutes defeated the Vikings, 57-56, in overtime, as Trinity Gibbons scored 19 points for PLU. Western played without several starters and ended up losing one of its top players to a season-ending knee injury on the final play of overtime.

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