Former Western Washington Standout To Play In Portugal

Summers

Former Western Washington basketball player Jessica Summers has signed a contract to play for the GDESSA club team in Barreiro, Portugal .  She will leave at the end of September and return in April. 

“I'm excited and nervous at the same time,” said Summers, who received WBCA and Division II Bulletin All-America honorable mention as a Viking in 2009-10.  “It's exciting getting to play against bigger and stronger players, but the language barrier makes it a little bit scary.”

GDESSA plays in the top division in Portugal, winning the championship in 2007.  Barreiro is located just 15 minutes from Lisbon , the capital city of Portugal .

To spur interest in her talents, Summers made a highlight film and hired an agent.  Besides Portugal , club teams in four other countries expressed interest.  They were Finland , Sweden , Slovenia and Slovakia .

“The furthest I have every traveled is to the east coast of the United States ,” Summers said.

Summers averaged 16.5 points and 8.9 rebounds for the Vikings last season, tying for first among GNAC leaders in rebounds and being second in scoring.  She was fourth in field-goal accuracy at 51.2 percent and fifth in blocked shots with a 1.1 average.

A first-team WBCA West Region and GNAC all-star, Summers was named to four regular-season all-tournament teams, being the MVP of three.

The Vikings finished 23-5, placing second in the GNAC and reaching the first round of the NCAA Division II West Regional. Summers played two seasons at Western after transferring from the University of Idaho.        

GNAC Adds Basketball, Soccer Tournaments

Hannan

The Great Northwest Athletic Conference Management Council has approved inaugural post-season conference championship tournaments in men's and women's basketball and men's and women's soccer.

The first basketball tournaments will be held this coming season, however the first soccer events will not be held until Nov., 2011 due to conflicts with previously scheduled contests.

The GNAC has been just one of two NCAA Division II conferences (along with the PacWest Conference) that has not held a basketball post-season tournament to determine its automatic qualifiers for the NCAA tournament.

All games in the two basketball tournaments will be played at host sites. Eight men's teams and eight women's teams will compete in the opening round on Saturday, Feb. 26 with the top four regular-season finishers hosting games.

The two highest surviving seeds will host semifinal games on Tuesday, Mar. 1. The top remaining men's and women's seed will then host the championship games on Saturday, Mar. 5.

The soccer tournaments will include four men's and four women's teams and will be held at a site to be determined.

“We're really excited about adding post-season tournaments in basketball this coming season and in soccer in 2011,” Hannan said. “We're still a fairly young conference and we see this as another step in the continual growth and development of our conference.

“This is something the athletic directors and our Management Council have examined for years,” Hannan said. “Due to travel challenges because of our geographical setting we have been unable to move forward. The Management Council felt it was time to explore this format and the opportunities it presents.”

2009-10 POST-SEASON ALL-STARS

Henderson, Dunbar, Summers Named To Two All-American Teams

Henderson	Dunbar	Summers

Seattle Pacific's Daesha Henderson was the top selection from the GNAC on the Division II Women's Bulletin All-American basketball team. Henderson was a third team selection on the women's squad.

Henderson earned her second All-American award as did both Amanda Dunbar and Jessica Summers of Western Washington who were Division II Women's Bulletin honorable selections. All three players were also honorable mention choices by the WBCA.

WBCA State Farm (Coaches): Honorable Mention - Amanda Dunbar, Western Washington (G, 5-9, Jr.); Daesha Henderson, Seattle Pacific (G, 5-8, Sr.); Jessica Summers, Western Washington (G, 6-1, Sr.). Division II Bulletin (Media): Third Team - Daesha Henderson, Seattle Pacific (G, 5-8, Sr.). Honorable Mention - Amanda Dunbar, Western Washington (G, 5-9, Jr.); Jessica Summers, Western Washington (G, 6-1, Sr.). Daktronics (SIDs): No GNAC player was selected.

Dunbar Named to Daktronics, WBCA West Region Teams

Amanda Dunbar of Western Washington has been named to both the Daktronics and WBCA NCAA Division II West Region first team all-star teams.

Dunbar was the runnerup for the Daktronics West Region Player-of-the-Year. She received 126 ballot points one less than Chelsea Carlisle of UCSD and one more than Brittney Taylor of Humboldt State.

Joining Dunbar on the WBCA State Farm first team were Daesha Henderson of Seattle Pacific and Jessica Summers of Western Washington.

Second team Daktronics honors went to Henderson, Summers, Nicci Miller of Alaska Anchorage and Dara Zack of Saint Martin's. The WBCA does not select a second-team.

DAKTRONICS WOMEN (SIDs): First Team - Chelsea Carlisle, UC San Diego (Guard, 5-6, So., Agoura Hills, CA); Amanda Dunbar, Western Washington (Guard, 5-9, Jr., Marysville, WA); Brittney Taylor, Humboldt State (Center, 6-0, Sr., Playa del Rey, CA); Reyana Colson, Cal Poly Pomona (Guard, 5-6, Jr., Compton, CA); Samantha Murphy, Grand Canyon (Guard, 5-8, So., Phoenix, AZ). Second Team - Daesha Henderson, Seattle Pacific (Guard, 5-8, Sr., Snohomish, WA); Neka Mixon, CSU Dominguez Hills (Guard, 5-10, Jr., Long Beach, CA); Jessica Summers, Western Washington (Forward, 6-1, Sr., Blaine, WA); Nicci Miller, Alaska Anchorage (Forward, 5-10, Sr., Denver, CO); Dara Zack, Saint Martin's (Forward, 5-10, Jr., Spokane, WA).

WBCA WOMEN (Coaches): Chelsea Carlisle, UC San Diego (Guard, 5-6, So., Agoura Hills, CA); Reyana Colson, Cal Poly Pomona (Guard, 5-6, Jr., Compton, CA); Amanda Dunbar, Western Washington (Guard, 5-9, Jr., Marysville, WA); Daesha Henderson, Seattle Pacific (Guard, 5-8, Sr., Snohomish, WA); Jessica Summers, Western Washington (Forward, 6-1, Sr., Blaine, WA).

SPU's Henderson, van Beek Selected Player, Coach-of-the-Year in GNAC

Seattle Pacific guard Daesha Henderson has been selected the 2009-10 GNAC Women's Basketball Player-of-the-Year.

Henderson, who was one of two repeaters from last year's first team and the only unanimous selection to the all-star team, was a near unanimous pick for Player-of-the-Year honors receiving eight of a possible nine first-place votes.

Though only ranked 10th in the conference in scoring, averaging 13.3 points per game, Henderson led the Falcons on both ends of the court and often made contributions that didn't necessarily show up on the stat shee

Four Selected To CoSIDA Academic Team

Seattle Pacific's Daesha Henderson and Caitlyn Rohrbach have been named to the CoSIDA/ESPN The Magazine Academic Women's Basketball All-District VIII team.

Henderson was a first team selection, while Rohrbach, who was a third team pick a year ago, and Grace Milliken of Alaska Fairbanks earned second team District VIII honors. Milliken has a perfect 4.00 GPA. Kayla Ryan of Montana State Billings was a District VII first team pick.

First Team - Kayla Ryan, MSUB (Education, Jr., 3.93, Big Timber, MT); Daesha Henderson, SPU (Biology, Sr., 3.49, Snohomish, WA). Second Team - Grace Milliken, UAF (Biological Sciences, Jr., 4.00, Healy, AK); Caitlyn Rohrbach, SPU (Psychology, Jr., 3.94, Edmonds, WA).