Promising Season for NPU Women's Basketball

CHICAGO, IL (November 15, 2002) - It will be a whole new ballgame for many players on the 2002-03 North Park University (NPU) women's basketball team, which has seven freshmen on its roster of 14.

Three returning starters - seniors Carrie Swenson, Amy Stoltz and Sara Sietsema - should help coach Jack Surridge's squad better last season's 8-17 overall record and 2-12 mark in the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin. However, Surridge will have to help 10 first-year college players transition from high school basketball quickly enough to complement the returnees.

"The real challenge is that the newer ones don't know how intense it (college basketball) is," said Surridge, who has 442 wins in his coaching career, fourth among women's Division III coaches. "If they learn that quickly, we could do pretty well. Last year, we couldn't play full-court defense, but this year I think we could play full-court defense for 40 minutes.

Swenson of Grace Covenant Church in Little Falls, Minnesota, is the biggest block in the rebuilding plan and a valuable one as a 6-foot-1-inch center. She was second in the conference in blocked shots per game and fifth in rebounding. Overall, she averaged 10.5 points and 8.8 rebounds while blocking 65 shots, the most by an NPU player since 1990. She has scored 519 points in 74 collegiate games and grabbed 444 rebounds to go with 72 steals.

Stoltz has played 72 collegiate games during her three years at NPU, scoring 501 points and dishing out 178 assists while making 64 shots from 3-point range. She averaged 9.0 points per game, shot 81 percent from the foul line and totaled 55 assists while serving as her team's primary ball handler. Sietsema started 22 games a year ago and was among the team leader in rebounds (80) and assists (32).

One other returning player, sophomore Redina Hall, received playing time last year, although Hall missed much of the season with a knee injury. Three other sophomores playing their first year at NPU are Angie Willner, Amy Prokopowicz and Angie Wood. All were All-Conference high school players. Willner, who attended Covenant Bible College in Windsor, Colorado, last year, is from the Evangelical Covenant Church of Fairmont, Minnesota. She was a three-sport athlete all through high school, earning All-Conference mention twice while earning her school's highest honor as a student-athlete.

Two freshmen, Melanie Morgan and Lucia Abel already have collegiate athletic experience. Morgan played for NPU's women's soccer team this fall. She was one of her team's top scorers at Bradley (Bourbonnais) High School. Abel, who is from the African country of Namibia, ran in the NPU cross-country program.

Six-foot forward Megan Slattery comes from the most accomplished prep basketball program of the recruits, New Trier High School in Winnetka, the third-place Class AA team in Illinois last winter. Slattery and 5-foot-10-inch Anna Slenk of Holland, Michigan, are the tallest newcomers on Surridge's roster.

Three others - Molly Mitchell, Sara Teachout and Shandrel Young - round out the roster and Surridge believes all can contribute to his team's fortunes right away. Young, who captained her team, was an All-City and All-Metro basketball player at United Township High in East Moline and played on a championship summer league amateur squad. She was also one of the area's top high jumpers in track and field. Teachout and Mitchell captained their high school teams, earning four and three varsity letters respectively.

NPU opens its season November 22-23 at the Kalamazoo Invitational in Michigan and travels to Lake Wales, Florida, for the Warner Southern Tournament December 30-31 during its non-conference schedule. The Vikings, who were picked seventh in the preseason CCIW rankings, open conference play at Carthage College December 7 in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Their home opener occurs January 7 against CCIW opponent Millikin University.

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