2021-22 Valparaiso Women's Basketball Season Preview
Thanks for reading the Her Hoop Stats Newsletter. If you like our work, be sure to check out our stats site, our podcast, and our social media accounts on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. You can also buy Her Hoop Stats gear, such as laptop stickers, mugs, and shirts!
Haven’t subscribed to the Her Hoop Stats Newsletter yet?
The front of the jerseys will be changing much more than the back this year for the Valparaiso women’s basketball team. Valpo will close the book on the Crusaders era and begin play as the Beacons with over 90% of its minutes returning from a team already on the rise.
Head coach Mary Evans led the program to its best two seasons in over a decade over the last two years and will be looking to build on that momentum this year. After a year in which COVID limitations and the additions of three mid-year enrollees complicated the learning curve, Evans hopes to be able to deepen the playbook this season.
“We were a little limited last year in some of the stuff that we were able to get into offensively as we were trying to incorporate some pieces that we were bringing in at various times,” Evans said.
Valpo runs a unique system in which five shooters are on the court at almost all times, so having a more typical offseason to prepare newcomers for it is critical. “The summer is usually a very important part of our development, especially offensively and how we play against the switch,” Evans said.
The Beacons play a switching defense, so this summer has given their offense a chance to acclimate to playing against the switch. Playing a five-out offense and switching defense means all five players on the court are asked to score and defend, so individual development has been a key focus for the team this offseason.
“We play a ton of one-on-one in the spring so that they can't hide,” Evans said. “They have to figure out how to score; they have to figure out how to get stops.”
The other individual growth component has been working with newly-hired strength and conditioning coach Trent Smart. “We’ve been working a lot in the weight room and getting stronger,” said senior point guard Shay Frederick.
“We're gonna feel a lot more confident in our bodies this year as far as being able to handle physicality,” Evans added.
Frederick, a Missouri Valley first-teamer who led the team in assists in each of her first three seasons, headlines a quartet of seniors who return from last year’s starting lineup. Also back are guards Grace White, Carie Weinman and forward Caitlin Morrison.
At 5-foot-10, White led the team in rebounding last season (5.9) and finished second behind Frederick in assists per game (2.8). The do-it-all fifth-year also became the first Missouri Valley Conference player since Missouri State’s Tyonna Snow in 2016 to average a block and multiple steals per game.
Morrison will be entering her sixth year with the program and is rising up the career leaderboards. Her 107 career blocks rank fourth in Valpo history, and with her 14th start this season, she will have started more games than anyone else in school history has even played.
Weinman, Morrison’s high school teammate, finished just behind Frederick for the team lead in minutes and scoring last year. The reigning conference steals leader is also the defensive stopper, but she will be looking to up her offensive instincts this season.
“I’ve been working on reading when I should shoot or when I should drive or jab step or shot fake,” Weinman said. “I don’t want to just be defined as a defensive player.”
The top four producers off the bench return as well in senior Maya Dunson, junior Cara VanKempen and sophomores Lauren Gunn and Leah Earnest.
Dunson expected to sit out last season after transferring from Loyola, but due to the extra year of eligibility granted by the NCAA, she suited up for 18 games. “We kind of threw her into the fire just because of COVID rules and getting the year back,” Evan said. “She's done a great job, not only picking up our stuff, but just physically getting back to the player that she was [prior to transferring].”
VanKempen will be looking to build on a solid sophomore season in which she stepped up the most in the team’s toughest games. The 6-foot wing logged her four highest scoring totals of the season in Valpo’s four games against power-conference opponents, including double figures against Purdue and Wisconsin.
Gunn led the team in minutes off the bench as a freshman and is primed to take the next step in year two. “She was a great defender last year on the ball, but she’s been even better, believe it or not,” Weinman said. “She is dogging people in practice … she makes offensive players better.”
Add Earnest, and the Beacons boast a dangerous duo of sophomores who are set to have a big impact. “Leah has been putting in a lot of work in the offseason,” Weinman said. “[She’s] always getting in the gym.”
“Earnest has taken a big jump in just her level of confidence,” Evans added. “She just seems more comfortable on the court.”
Another player who has stood out to Evans early on is sophomore Ava Interrante. “She’s had a tremendous offseason,” Evans said. “As we meet as a staff, we're all kind of like, ‘Man, Ava’s really picking it up. like she's really doing some good things.’”
Joining the promising core will be St. Bonaventure transfer Olivia Brown. The 5-foot-8 guard knocked down 81 threes in two seasons with the Bonnies and is already clicking in Valpo’s system.
“Liv fits right in,” Weinman said. “She has a good grasp of what’s going on.”
“Her IQ is really high [and] she works extremely hard,” Frederick added. “Having her and her work ethic, her ability to shoot and just her experience playing college basketball already has been huge.”
Evans, who recruited Brown initially out of high school, has been delighted with her off the court as well.
“She is a tremendous young person first and foremost,” Evans said. “She's been a great addition just to our program and our university in that respect.”
On the court, Evans hopes her scheme can open up Brown’s game as a scorer.
“She is a very good shooter, but I've been pleasantly surprised with her ability to finish at the rim, her ability to drive, to play one on one,” Evans said, adding that Brown’s defense has impressed her as well.
Valpo adds two freshmen to the mix this season in 6-foot-1 forward Ella Van Weelden and 5-foot-10 wing Lovie Malone. “They come in with energy and passion every day in practice and the willingness to learn, so they're definitely competing every day with everyone else,” Frederick said. “If anyone were to walk into practice, you wouldn’t be able to see any difference between those freshmen [and the returners].”
“I've honestly seen the freshmen improving since they first got here,” Weinman added. “I've seen them improving their shot and just really getting the hang of things.”
Van Weelden gives Evans yet another long-range threat — one she refers to as a “dead-eye shooter.” Early in the summer, several of the players, including Van Weelden, played some pickup on their own. “The girls came in the next day of practice and were like, ‘She had like seven threes in our scrimmages!’” Evans said. “I was like, ‘Good, that's why we recruited her.’”
Evans expects Malone to bring an added toughness to the Beacon defense. “She's just a competitor — she loves to guard, she loves to defend, she loves to rebound,” Evans said. “She has one speed; she plays hard all the time.”
Adding three talented newcomers to a roster loaded with experience has made for some high-intensity practices. “There's a lot more physicality in our practice than there's been in the past,” Evans said. “A lot of that is a credit to … the work they've done in the weight room and how much more comfortable they are with going in and getting hit.”
The weight room isn’t the only place the Beacons have been spending extra time. “It's actually frustrating because you'll try and go shoot but all the hoops and the shooting machines will be taken,” Frederick said. “The competition in practice is super high … there’s no comfortability in having a spot.”
The competitiveness of early practices could allow Evans to enter this season with a deeper rotation.
“They've done a fantastic job of making it really hard for me to know who's going to rise to the top,” she said. “We will be a lot better if those [starters] aren't playing 35, 36, 37 minutes a game and we can get back to our top minute kids being 31-32 minute kids. I think we’ll be a lot fresher come February and March, and we’ll have a much better chance of going deeper into the tournament.”
After lifting Valpo into the ranks of the conference contenders over the last two seasons, Evans knows her team is ready to go bigger. “We're at a point in our program where our goal has to be to win the championship,” she said. “That’s why they've been here for eight weeks in the summer, and that's why they've been in that weight room grinding with Coach Smart.”
“We're not very far from that at all,” Frederick said. “I think we proved last year that we can compete with anyone.”
The Beacons won’t need to wait until conference play to prove that they are ready to compete this season. After coming within an overtime period of knocking off three Big Ten opponents a year ago, Valpo will face AP Preseason Top 25 vote-getters Michigan State, Notre Dame, and South Dakota as part of a loaded non-conference slate that also includes NET top-90 opponents Bowling Green and Central Michigan.
If Evans can successfully guide her squad through that grueling stretch, they’ll have everyone’s attention entering conference play.
Thanks for reading the Her Hoop Stats Newsletter. If you like our work, be sure to check out our stats site, our podcast, and our social media accounts on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. You can also buy Her Hoop Stats gear, such as laptop stickers, mugs, and shirts!
Haven’t subscribed to the Her Hoop Stats Newsletter yet?