Locally: Gonzaga women’s basketball named to WBCA Academic Top 25 Team Honor Rolls
From staff reports
The Gonzaga women’s basketball team was named to the 2023-24 WBCA Academic Top 25 team honor rolls announced Wednesday by the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association. The Zags sit at 21st in the country with a team grade-point average of 3.623.
The WBCA Academic Top 25 recognizes NCAA Divisions I, II and III, NAIA and two-year college women’s basketball teams across the nation that carry the highest combined GPAs inclusive of all student-athletes on their rosters for the entire season. The 2023-24 season is the 29th in which the WBCA has compiled the honor rolls.
The Zags sit one spot ahead of Boise State and two spots ahead of Harvard in the rankings. Youngstown State received the top slot with a team GPA of 3.868.
Swimming
The Spokane Waves Aquatic Team is set to host the 2024 Inland Empire Long Course Championship, Thursday through Saturday at Witter Pool .
The team expects 255 USA Swimming athletes in attendance from Eastern Washington, northwestern Idaho and northeastern Oregon.
This prelims and finals long-course meters competition (same size as the Olympics) will host numerous clubs from across the region. The three-day event will include all age group-appropriate events. Athletes will compete in butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke, freestyle and the individual medley.
Soccer
Single-match tickets for the Spokane Zephyr’s inaugural season are on sale, the team announced Wednesday.
Tickets start as low as $24 per seat and can be purchased online at www.spokanezephyrfc.com. The team’s home opener is 6 p.m. on Sept. 17 against Fort Lauderdale United FC at ONE Spokane Stadium.
College volleyball
Washington State volleyball coach Korey Schroeder announced the signing of Kylie Wong ahead of the upcoming 2024 season.
Wong comes to WSU going into her junior season, transferring from Arizona, where she spent her sophomore season. Before that, she played her freshman season at Chandler-Gilbert (Arizona) Community College.
• Eastern Washington volleyball earned the American Volleyball Coaches’ Association 2024 team academic award, the organization announced Wednesday.
Eastern also landed a spot on the AVCA honor roll after earning a team GPA in the top 20% of Division I programs. To qualify for the team academic award, each program must maintain a 3.3 cumulative team GPA for the entire academic year.
College tennis
Eight Gonzaga women’s tennis players and six GU men’s players were placed on the Intercollegiate Tennis Association scholar-athlete list and both teams were named an ITA all-academic team, the ITA announced on Tuesday.
Tiegan Aitken, Brooke Bittner, Rose Hayes, Savannah Johnson, Ella Nielsen, Kianna Oda, Emily Robertson and Caroline Wernli represented the GU women. The men’s team was represented by Oliver Andersson, Matthew Hollingworth, Gus Krauel, Oscar Rashed, Leon Roider and Sasha Trkulja.