Women's Basketball Season Review
The Faith women's basketball team finished up their season with an 8-14 record. Though it was not a winning record, the Lady Eagles played well and showed great signs of improvement this season. The Lady Eagles returned five of six players from last year's small team. Ashley Pearson, Laura Garwick, Shannon Steffen, Joy Smith, and Holly Shepard all returned from last year's team. Kellie Warne who played two seasons for the Lady Eagles, but was in Peru last year as part of the Arriba program also rejoined this year's team as well as newcomers Kelsea Pearson and Phebe Asher.
Faith would win two conference games and two region games during the regular season. The two conference wins landed them a five seed in the MCCC conference tournament. They would face Barclay College in the first round of the conference tournament for the second year in a row. Though the Lady Eagles fought hard, Barclay came away with a 68-59 victory. Faith responded the next day with a win over Manhattan Christian to secure a fifth place finish in this year's tournament. The Lady Eagles did a great job at keeping their testimony during all their games this year, and won the MCCC Sportsmanship Award for the fourth year in a row.
The two region wins gave Faith a three seed in the regional tournament. They would face the host school and number two seed North Central University in the semi-final round of the regional tournament. The Lady Eagles started out the game great, jumping out to a 22-17 first quarter lead. However, North Central kept chipping away at the lead and soon took control of the game in the second half. North Central won the game 71-55, eventually winning the regional tournament and advancing this year's national tournament.
With a balanced lineup of guards and posts, the playing time was split pretty equally. Junior forward Laura Garwick would lead the team in scoring for the third straight year averaging 16.1 points per game. She also scored her 1,000 career point this season as well. Senior forward Ashley Pearson led the team in rebounding with 12.5 per game, and grabbed her 1,000 rebound of her career this season. Sophomore guard Shannon Steffen led in assists with 3.2 per game. Faith would out rebound their opponents by nearly 11 rebounds a game giving them an advantage on the inside.
The Faith women's team isvery thankful for all the support they received throughout the season. They did a great job at keeping Christ at the center of everything they do on and off the court. The players are excited about working on their skills, and getting ready to do even better next year.