SPOKANE, Wash. – Much is familiar, but much is also new for the Whitworth University women's basketball team. The Pirates return several key players from last season, but welcome a new head coach and new talent to the team.
Whitworth will open the season on Thursday at home against Walla Walla University.
Kenny Love, a former standout player and top assistant for the Pirate men's team, is in his first season as the head coach for Whitworth's women. He is taking the transition from assistant to head coach one day at a time.
"The biggest adjustment so far has been maintaining a high-level view of what we need to work on as a program, not only in the short term, but also down the line in preparation for the conference schedule to come," Love said.
Love has four primary starters back from 2021-22, along with several key bench players. Joining that group of ten returners are four incoming first-year Pirates, a returnee from 2019-20 and a senior making her Pirate debut.
"The biggest areas of strength for this group are our versatility and ability to adapt to whatever is needed from game to game," Love said. "We have multiple players who can initiate the offense and handle the ball, options to post-up, and shooting all throughout the lineup."
Two of the key returnees are in the front court. Devyn Cope returns as the starting post after she started all 24 games in which she played last season. She averaged 4.5 points and 4.4 rebounds per game. Avery Bowman is a first-year post from nearby Northwest Christian HS who will provide back up.
Olivia Mayer only started six games last season, but will likely be the full-time starter at forward after she claimed honorable mention All-NWC in her first season at Whitworth. She averaged 11.8 points and 6.0 rebounds per game. Alyssa Fitzgerald has returned to the team after taking last season off. She played in two contests during the Covid-shortened 2020 season.
Two other first-year Pirates are in the mix in the front court. Jordan Peterson was a standout at Prairie HS in Brush Prairie, Washington and Abby Bova is playing for the first time as a senior at Whitworth.
The Pirates' three-guard lineup is full of returning ability, led by Quincy McDeid who is in her fourth year as a starter. She averaged 12.4 points, 4.3 rebounds and 1.4 assists last winter. The other returning shooting guard is Kimberly Dewey, who started 18 of the 25 games in 2021-22. Dewey averaged 7.4 points and 3.4 rebounds. Madison Hagen also has starter experience. She made ten starts last season, averaging 6.2 points.
Dawson Driggs, Ava Dennis and Katie Jo van den Bogaert all have playing experience as shooting guards. Driggs played in 20 games last season, Dennis saw action in eight contests, while van den Bogaert appeared in five. Cheyenne Rodgers is a guard from Snohomish HS in her first year at Whitworth.
Tara Kaneshiro returns as the starting point guard. She averaged 4.0 points, 1.5 rebounds and 2.0 assists per game. With 18 starts. Taylor Smith appeared in 20 games off the bench in 2021-22. Taylor McLean is a first-year Pirate from Freeman HS.
Love believes the newcomers to the team are already having an impact.
"They are improving every day and continue finding ways to impact our program going forward, whether that's in games or practices."
The Pirates play a Walla Walla team on Thursday that went 2-27 last season, including an 81-66 loss to Whitworth in College Place.
Whitworth will play a pair of non-conference tournaments at Northwest University (Wash.) and at UC Santa Cruz over the next two weekends. The Pirates will take a late December trip to Southern California for games at Chapman, Caltech and Whittier, then end the non-conference slate with a home game against Cal Lutheran on December 28th.
The Northwest Conference will be as challenging as ever. Whitman is the defending champion. Puget Sound brings back the bulk of its roster. Pacific and George Fox both return All-NWC honorees. Willamette showed great improvement last season.
Whitworth will open the NWC schedule Dec. 2-3 at Pacific Lutheran and Puget Sound.
