The CWU Women’s Basketball (WBB) team came in second place in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference (GNAC) regional tournament. CWU had the honor of hosting GNAC this season.
Athletic Department’s role in hosting GNAC tournament and general basketball season
Dennis Francois, the director of athletics, recognized that he had a role in keeping the GNAC tournament running smoothly, but he wanted to give all his praise to his staff.
“I had a pre-planned trip down to California for some donor events and activities down there. So I was gone Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of that week that we were preparing,” Francois said. “So we got the host-site bid on Sunday, spent a few hours with Mario [Andaya] on the phone late Sunday night.”
“Our marketing team and sports information team, those people led the charge and did a phenomenal job of hosting,” Francois said. “That’s probably one of the things that I’m maybe most proud of, in terms of how our staff performs at a very, very high level.”
Richardson also said she felt proud of her players for making it to the Sweet 16 for the second year in a row. She defined “Sweet 16” as a competition that includes the top 16 basketball teams out of 300 in the Northwest region. She set new standards within the WBB program to get her players to the point where they are now.
“We feel really good about what we accomplished this year, but [there are] obviously some moments that we can look back on and learn from to help us improve for seasons moving forward,” Richardson said. “We want to get those conference championship games and those regional champion games and win them and become on the other side of them. Ideally, we want to make an Elite Eight, Final Four or national championship.”
Richardson said that next year, she plans to encourage her students to learn more about themselves and each other. She feels that such a personal interaction will help the team perform even better next season than they did this year.
Reactions by Basketball Forward Fiona Snashall
Finance Major Fiona Snashall, who plays for the CWU Women’s Basketball team, said she felt the strong personal connections that Richardson said were all so important.
“It was my first year being here. Being a transfer team [member] can be pretty scary, but with my coaches and my team, I felt like I hit the jackpot,” Snashall said. “It’s pushed me really hard this season and it ended up showing up out on the corner.”
“I got pretty lucky being in the transfer portal. It can be a gamble where you end up,” Snashall continued. “I got very lucky with my coaches and my teammates. They all believe in me and that’s something super rare, something I’m very blessed to have.”
Richardson said she also encourages each of her team members to score more points next season. Snashall stated she felt that she could increase her courage and become more active in the court, rather than staying on the perimeter.
Brief note on Asher Cai
“It’s going to be different with Asher [Cai] gone, just because she’s such a talented, such an amazing player,” Snashall said. “Some things we can improve on, individually, looking to be more of a three-point scorer…trying to improve my post-game board.”
As mentioned in previous Observer issues, Cai set the Three-Point Field Goal Record this season in the GNAC. On Feb. 28, Cai received an injury on her leg because the Northwest Nazarene Nighthawks drove into her, going after her pretty hard, Francois stated.
“There’s a thing called positive deviance,” Francois said. “There is something to say about that inspirational side of when you got somebody out there, playing injured and still performing that second game of regionals, in which you have 30-something points. Just absolutely phenomenal performance and pretty inspirational for a lot of other people to see that.”
“A healthy Asher [Cai] is worth a lot of points on the scoreboard and a lot of leadership out there on the floor. She’s a pretty good distraction for any team because she’s pretty dangerous driving in from outside,” Francois continued.
Annalee Coronado’s reactions
Earlier in the season, another Wildcat was injured. Clinical Physiology major Annalee Coronado, another CWU basketball player, stopped weirdly and broke her knee.
“I had a lot of blessings [and] people that supported me,” Coronado said. “My boyfriend, Justin, was my biggest supporter and it was everything I needed. That difficult time and my recovery time was initially supposed to be six months. So I wasn’t supposed to be coming back until the last few weeks of February. And I played December 20.”
Coronado expressed shock about winning an Honorable Mention GNAC award. “I wasn’t who I wanted to be this season because of my injury. And so when I found out, I literally just cried. It was great and I was so happy,” Coronado said. “I was super grateful that the coaches in our league saw me come back and perform and I was just thankful for it.”
Overall, the WBB faced many challenges, but the Athletics Department claimed that they had a successful basketball season.
