Cardinals Celebrate Successful 2008-09 Season, Looking Forward to 2009-10 Campaign

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Wesleyan women's basketball held its last official event of the 2008-09 season as the team gathered together for the annual end-of-season luncheon Sun., May 3. Coaches, staff, players and their families came together to celebrate the season and honor the outgoing seniors. After co-captains Lucy Sprung '08 (far left in photo) and Meredith Lowe '09 (second from left in photo) welcomed all in attendance, the entire senior class spent the rest of the time being feted by both players and coaches for their four years of commitment and accomplishments. The sophomore class acknowledged the seniors with a slide show, while the freshmen and sophomores provided the entertainment. Sprung, Lowe, Shannah Lively '09 (second from right in photo) and Ali Fourney '09 (far right in photo) finished up their undergraduate years as the catalysts to a 12-11 record in 2008-09 and part of the Cardinals' string of nine consecutive winning seasons.

In her remarks, Coach Kate Mullen noted that the senior class "graduates with a four-year overall record of 62-37 (.626), a NESCAC record of 22-14 (.610) and one trip to the NCAA Tournament in 2006. Most importantly, their individual commitment and combined leadership earned the respect of their teammates and will continue as the foundation of the program. We appreciate all they have done for Cardinal basketball."

Academic team mentor Professor Ishita Mukerji presented Lively with a gift for maintaining the team's highest GPA for the year while all-NESCAC academic awards were presented to Lively and Lowe.

POST-SEASON ATHLETIC HONORS

For the second year in a row, both Fourney, named first team, and Sprung, named second team, earned all-NESCAC honors. Fourney led the NESCAC in scoring with her 18.7 PPG figure, the highest average of her career. She also was ranked in four other categories among NESCAC players - second in steals (3.7 per game), seventh in shooting percentage (47.4%), eighth in assists (3.35 per game), and ninth in blocked shots (1.0 per game). As testament to her versatility, Fourney is the only Wesleyan player in the team's 37-year history to accumulate at least 100 career field goals, three-pointers, free throws, rebounds, assists, blocked shots and steals. Her 1,498 career points is a team standard as are her 335 career free throws.

Fourney also received two honors from the New England Women's Basketball Association (NEWBA) as she was chosen for the NEWBA first team while also being chosen to play in the annual NEWBA Senior All-Star Classic.

Sprung ranked third in scoring among NESCAC players with 14.4 PPG and was 10th in rebounds, averaging 6.5. A rock at the free-throw line, Sprung led the conference with her 84.6 percent figure as she canned 77 of 91 attempts. Over her final 13 games, she hit nearly 90 percent at the line (44-for-49).