Jones Named Conference MVP; Eagles Finish Fourth at Conference Tourney

HAVILAND, Kansas—It's been an enormously successful season for first-year Head Coach Zak Kirkman, his wife, Talitha, and the Faith Eagles women's basketball team, who raced to a second-place finish in the regular season portion of the Midwest Christian College Conference. While the conference tournament didn't end the way they wanted with a fourth place finish, the Eagles wrapped up a pair of large honors as Mikayla Jones was named Conference MVP and Rachel Kleczka was named First Team All-Conference.

This is the first winning season for the Lady Eagles in the last 13 years. With 16 wins, the team has tied for the most wins of any Faith women's basketball team this century, and with two more regular season games to go, plus the regional tournament, there is a good chance they will become the school's winningest women's basketball team since the turn of the century. The Eagles finished 16-12 in 2009-10 for their last winning season. The last Eagles squad to win more than 16 games was the 1998-99 team which finished 18-5.

Faith opened the 2023 conference tournament with a win over Emmaus Bible College. Mikayla Jones was the leading scorer with 14 points to go along with 8 steals and 4 assists as the Eagles rolled to a 55-36 win.

The semifinals were not as kind to the Eagles as they faced the host school Barclay Bears, who were playing on their home court. Barclay caught the momentum with its crowd support and had the hot-hand from three-point distance on their way to a 71-61 upset over Faith.

The Eagles went cold in Saturday's consolation match, falling to Calvary, 51-38, after previously defeating the Warriors twice in the regular season. With the loss, the Eagles fell to 16-11.

Faith gets a couple more home games this week before regional play begins on March 1 in Dubuque, Iowa. The Eagles face Union College at the Nettleton Center on Tuesday, February 21, 2023, at 4 p.m. and finish the week against Ecclesia on Friday at 2 p.m., also in the Nettleton Center.