April 25, 2008
IOWA CITY — The University of Iowa women’s basketball team held its annual banquet Friday night celebrating its co-Big Ten regular season championship and 17th appearance in the NCAA Championships.
The Hawkeyes reflected on their season and announced team awards. Senior Johanna Solverson earned the Coaches Award, which is emblematic of the player who represents the team, on-and-off the court, in a positive manner and demonstrates a tremendous work ethic. Seniors Stacy Schlapkohl and Jenee Graham shared the Most Improved Player Award. Senior Abby Emmert was recognized with the Dr. Christine Grant Leadership Award.
Lisa Bluder received her awards for being named Big Ten Coach of the Year and WBCA Region 6 Coach of the Year. The Hawkeye head coach also received a certificate from the WBCA for winning career game No. 500, which occurred Feb. 10, at Penn State. Junior Kristi Smith was also recognized for being named honorable mention all-American.
Statistical leader plaques were given to Solverson, Graham and Megan Skouby. Graham and Solverson were honored as Iowa’s leading rebounders, each averaging 5.1 boards per contest. Skouby registered the team’s top field goal percentage (.504). Graham was also honored for recording the best free throw percentage (.813). Solverson also posted the most assists (107). Additionally, plaques were given to graduating senior managers Ethan Jacobson, Grant Snyder and Kelli Terrell.
Iowa’s five student-athletes selected all-Big Ten were also honored. Smith was named to the first team by the coaches and second team by the media. Solverson was a second team pick by the coaches and a third team media choice. Junior Wendy Ausdemore earned honorable mention accolades by the media. Skouby was selected the conference’s “Sixth Player of the Year”, while Schlapkohl was named the Iowa women’s basketball nominee for the Big Ten Sportsmanship Award.
Four Hawkeyes, Ausdemore, Graham, Smith and senior Krista VandeVenter earned academic all-Big Ten recognition. This year marked the third time Graham and VandeVenter received academic all-conference laurels, while it was the second time for Ausdemore.
Ausdemore and VandeVenter also received a certificate for being named to the District VII Academic All-America third team. It’s the second time Ausdemore earned academic all-District accolades, as she was a second team selection a year ago.
Iowa won a share of the Big Ten regular season championship (with Ohio State) with a 13-5 league mark and a 21-11 overall record. It marked the Hawkeyes’ first regular season crown since 1998. Iowa has won nine Big Ten regular season titles, the second-most in the conference. Iowa was the only Big Ten team this season to win eight-straight games. Furthermore, the Hawkeyes broke the school record for field goal percentage in a half (17-23, .739) at Wisconsin, consecutive 3-pointers made in a game (7) vs. Minnesota and most 3-pointers attempted in an NCAA Championships game (22) vs. Georgia. The Black and Gold tied the school all-time mark for treys made in an NCAA Championships contest (9) vs. Georgia.
The Hawkeyes ranked seventh nationally in 3-point field goal percentage (.389) and 29th in assists (15.7). Individually, Ausdemore ranked third in the country in 3-point accuracy (.456), attempting more triples than any other highly ranked player.
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