Evans and Unruh Named First-Team All-UAA Selections

ALL-UAA TEAM

St. Louis, Mo., March 4, 2009 – The No. 5 Washington University women’s basketball team had six student-athletes earn All-University Athletic Association (UAA) honors, as announced by the association on Wednesday. Juniors Zoë Unruh and Janice Evans headed the Washington U. nominees as first-team all-UAA selections.

Senior Jaimie McFarlin landed on the all-UAA second team, with senior Shanna-Lei Dacanay, senior Halsey Ward and sophomore Alex Hoover each earning honorable mention nods. Washington University head coach Nancy Fahey and her staff Bobbi Morse, Dianna Pasley, Annitre Edison, Ben Levine and Chad Gregory were tabbed as the UAA Coaching Staff of the Year, after leading the Bears to their 18th UAA title and a 13-1 record in league play. It is the 16th time in her career that Fahey has earned conference Coaching Staff of the Year honors.

Evans earned first-team all-UAA honors for the second year in a row, after averaging a team-best 10.3 points per game in league action. Evans has played her best basketball over the second half of the season, averaging 11.5 points and 5.1 rebounds per game with a 50.0 field goal percentage over Washington University’s last 11 games. She reached double figures in scoring in seven UAA games, including five of the last six, and scored a season-high 21 points in a 71-56 win over Brandeis University on Feb. 8.

Unruh has been one of Washington University’s most consistent scoring threats all season. She leads the team in scoring at 9.0 points per game, and averaged 8.6 points per game in association contests. Unruh transformed into a long-range scoring threat this season, sinking a career-high 26 three-point baskets, and her 37.1 three-point shooting percentage ranks fifth in the UAA. She reached double-figures in scoring five times during UAA play, including a season-high 19-point performance at Rochester on Jan. 23. Unruh was an honorable mention all-UAA selection last year.

McFarlin is tabbed as an all-UAA performer for the second time in her career, after earning first-team honors in 2007. She averaged 8.4 points and a team-high 7.9 rebounds per game in UAA action this year, and she scored in double-figures six times in addition to recording a pair of double-doubles against UAA foes. McFarlin ranks fourth in the UAA in rebounds per game (7.6), sixth in blocks (0.9) and ninth in steals (1.6), and eclipsed 700-career rebounds on Feb. 28, against the University of Chicago.

Dacanay is an honorable-mention all-UAA selection for the second time in her career and the first time since 2006, when she was named the UAA Rookie of the Year. She established herself as the most efficient point guard in the nation over the course of the regular season, dishing out a team-high 97 assists to just 21 turnovers, for an NCAA-leading assist-to-turnover ratio of 4.6. Dacanay eclipsed 300-career assists this season, and currently sits in a tie for fifth in school history with 304.

Hoover, who was also an honorable-mention all-UAA honoree and the UAA Rookie of the Year in 2008, is the only player to start in all 25 games this year for Washington University. She finished the regular season averaging 5.2 points and 3.9 assists per game, tying with Dacanay for third in the conference in assists-per game. With only 27 turnovers this season, Hoover has an assist-to-turnover ratio of 3.6, which is second in the UAA and third in NCAA Division III.

Ward also repeats as a member of honorable mention all-UAA team, after averaging 8.3 points and 1.9 three-pointers made per game in UAA action. She ranks second in the conference in three-point field goals made for the season (2.0) and third in three-point shooting percentage (40.8), a mark that is good for 23rd in the country. Ward is one of the best three-point shooters in school history, currently ranking third in three-point field goal percentage (.387) and sixth in three-pointers made (123).

Washington University opens play in the 2009 NCAA Tournament on Friday, March 6, against Capital University at the WU Field House in St. Louis, Mo., at 7 p.m. The Bears are making their NCAA-record 20th-straight appearance in the NCAA Tournament and are 44-17 all-time in NCAA Tournament play. Transylvania University and Howard Payne University will face off in the other regional semifinal in St. Louis, Mo., on Friday afternoon at 5 p.m., and the winners of the two games will compete on Saturday, March 7, at 7 p.m., for the right to advance to the NCAS Sectional semifinals.