Once again, the Sea Lions will head to Tennessee to take on the NAIA’s best basketball teams.
The Point Loma Nazarene University’s women’s basketball team has surpassed all expectations this season. Despite the early loss of starting point guard Kati Hilbelink to an injury, the team has battled back and now stand at seventh in the country, with a chance to take it all during the tournament.
The National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics will host the 32 best teams in Jackson, Tenn., March 14 to 20 for the Division I Women’s National Tournament.
The event marks the fourth such trip for the team’s only senior, Erica Dotson “” and the Sea Lions will be smart to draw on her experience in the Golden State Athletic Conference (GSAC) and her 105-30 win-loss record in college.
“We just have to be ready for all levels of competition,” Dotson said. “The key is being able to bounce back from back-to-back games “” you can end up playing three days in a row.”
The players showed their mettle in the GSAC tournament, which ended with a 72-56 loss to the nation’s top-ranked team, Vanguard University, at the March 5 championship game in Costa Mesa to finish second in the conference.
“We really wanted to do well in the GSAC tournament to get better seeding and hopefully play the 25th-seed team (at nationals),” Dotson said.
The Sea Lions have played much more experienced teams during the regular season and won all but a half-dozen games, amassing a 25-6 record overall. The GSAC sends only four teams to the national tournament, a testament to the quality of the Southern California competition. Head coach Bill Westfall relishes this fact as he prepares his young women to play at a high level year in and out.
“We’ve gathered a lot of players that are committed to becoming better each year. We’ve tried to weed out the recruits that like the game but aren’t willing to work hard to improve,” Westfall said. “We’ve developed a team that really cares about each other and is willing to work hard in the off-season as well, and that’s a key to having a good program.”
The fact that the team enjoys spending so much time working on a common goal seems to have given them all a sense of family. Many of the players room together, and it’s not uncommon for them to hang out outside of practice and games.
It would be easy to tire of one other, but the players say that part of what makes them such a strong squad is the camaraderie they have developed.
“We’ve had so many rough times as a team and overcome a lot of inexperience. We’ve gone through so much but used each other for support to get through everything,” junior guard Kerra Sutton-Wodarski said. “We’re like any other team; we have our moments when we fight, but we put that stuff on the sideline when we play.”
The team is excited to travel across the country to show what they are made of. And the girls will not make the trip alone; in fact, many of their parents and even some faculty members and alumni are seizing the chance to cheer on the Sea Lions at the national tournament.
“Our heart and desire help us,” Dotson said. “We just want to win “” it’s our team character to overachieve.”
For more information, visit www.pointloma.edu or www.naia.cstv.com.