Are you ready for the second act? The Washington College women's basketball team turned a lot of heads in 2010-11, competing for a Centennial Conference playoff berth into the last week of the season despite an 11-woman roster featuring eight freshmen and no seniors. This year, the Shorewomen won't be sneaking up on anyone, but they won't be battling inexperience either.
The Shorewomen return 10 of last year's 11 players and 98% of the team's scoring for 2011-12. Leading that group are senior co-captains Meghan Tait (Oxford, PA/Oxford Area) and Sally O'Donnell (Cape May Court House, NJ/Wildwood Catholic). Tait played all but 98 minutes of the Shorewomen's season in 2010-11, earning All-Centennial Conference honorable mention for the first time and team Most Valuable Player honors for the second year in a row. The team's starting point guard, Tait averaged 10.4 points, 6.4 rebounds, and a Centennial Conference-leading 5.3 assists per game and knocked down a single-season school-record 101 free throws last year.
O'Donnell, meanwhile, paced a balanced Washington offense in scoring for the second year in a row by averaging 11.9 points per game and draining a team-best 54 three-point field goals. A six-foot, one-inch wing player, O'Donnell also averaged 5.0 rebounds per game and tied for the team lead with 28 blocks on the season.
Splitting time at the other starting guard spot last season were current sophomores Kelly Mitchell (Laurel, MD/Academy of the Holy Cross), Claire Mattox (Arlington, VA/Potomac School), and Katie Bay (Downingtown, PA/Downingtown West). Mitchell averaged 6.6 points per game, knocked down 30 three-point field goals, and shot 86% from the free-throw line. Mattox, who also spelled Tait at the point, averaged 3.7 points and 2.2 rebounds per game, while Bay averaged 1.2 points in just over seven minutes per game.
Sophomore wing Michaila Hatty (Philadelphia, PA/Neumann-Goretti) appeared in 12 games for the Shorewomen last season and completes Washington's group of returning backcourt players.
Freshman guard Jackie O'Connell (Northmapton, PA/Northampton Area) is the team's lone newcomer. O'Connell was a standout player and team captain at Northampton Area High School in Pennsylvania.
The Shorewomen were second in the Centennial Conference in rebounding margin (+8.2 per game) and led the league in total rebounds per game (45.5) in 2010-11 thanks to a powerful frontcourt rotation. Junior center Erin Kile (Benton, PA/Benton), sophomore forward/center Latisha Pledger (Chesapeake, VA/Indian River), sophomore forward Erin Fitzgerald (Greensboro, NC/Bishop McGuiness), and sophomore forward Liz Warkala (New York, NY/Marymount School of New York) combined to average 26.2 points and 23.2 rebounds per game at the two frontcourt spots.
Pledger led that group in both scoring and rebounding, averaging 8.8 points and 8.6 boards per contest. She hauled down 95 offensive rebounds on the season, second-most in the Centennial Conference. Kile averaged 8.6 points and 6.5 rebounds per game while sharing the team lead in blocks with O'Donnell and finishing second in the Centennial Conference by shooting 49.2% from the field for the season. Fitzgerald contributed 7.2 points and 6.5 rebounds per contest, while Warkala, the team's Most Improved Player for 2010-11, averaged 1.7 points and 2.3 rebounds per game.
Back for her fourth year as head coach of the Shorewomen is Megan Duran. Mercedes Van Wagner returns for her third year as an assistant coach, while Devona Knight, who played collegiate basketball at Division II Pfeiffer, joins the staff for this season.
When the 2010-11 season concluded, the Shorewomen were 10-10 in conference play, marking their first .500 or better season in league play in a dozen years. Their 12-13 overall record also matched their highest win total of the past dozen years. Washington finished in sixth place in the conference, one game back of three teams tied for fourth - Franklin & Marshall, Ursinus, and Swarthmore, the former two of whom secured the final two spots in the five-team Centennial Conference Tournament.
All three of those teams graduated significant players from last year's teams, as did Johns Hopkins, conference champion Muhlenberg, and Gettysburg, who finished the regular season in the top three spots. The Shorewomen, meanwhile, return nearly their entire team for the 2011-12 season, making them not only a smart choice to return to the conference playoffs for the first time since 1999, but also a legitimate contender for their first-ever Centennial Conference Championship.
The Shorewomen will open the 2011-12 season with a non-conference game at Catholic on November 15th. They will open conference play at McDaniel one week later and will play their first home game of the season November 29th when they host Johns Hopkins.