Women’s Basketball History 2018-2019 Season Record: 9-15 (4th in the OUA West) Playoff Record: 1-1 (lost to Lakehead in OUA West semi-final) The Gryphons entered the 2018/19 season ready to build on a strong previous year in which they earned home court advantage for the opening round of the OUA playoffs. The 2018-19 campaign proved to be a challenging year as Guelph endured a slew of injuries to key players, but the Gryphons, buoyed by the play of OUA All-Star Burke Bechard team highs of 15.8 ppg and 8.5 rpg), veteran guards Skyla Minaker and Sarah Holmes, forward Ivana Vujadinovic, and a cast of young players getting extended minutes because of the injuries, found their legs late in the season. Guelph recaptured its identity by ramping up the defence to finish the season with wins in three of the last four games. The roll continued in the OUA West quarter-final as the Gryphons got 20 points from Bechard to knock of the Windsor Lancers 62-59 on the road. Guelph then travelled to Thunder Bay to take on the Lakehead Thunderwolves in the OUA West semi-final but the hosts eliminated the resilient Gryphons with a tough 79-71 win. Head Coach: Mark Walton (3rd season) Assistants: Alexis Heit, Megan Reid, Dana Van Balkom Team Manager: Ally Peek Director of Basketball Operations: Howard Kiel Trainers: Chelsea Corner, Taylor Dunlop Strength & Conditioning: Josh Ford Video: Quincy Sickles-Jarvis Team Awards MIP - Modupe Okeowo MVP - Burke Bechard OUA All-Stars Burke Bechard – OUA Third Team All-Star Marija Bakoc Skyla Minaker Natalie Vigna Burke Bechard Nyasha Mombeshora Ivana Vujadinovic Tatjana Boskovic Modupe Okeowo Ashley Wheeler Sarah Holmes Ariana Pirovic Ashley White Maripier Kingsley Hanna Pryce Julia Kokonis Alexis Pulford-Thorpe 2017-2018 Season Record: 14-10 (4th in the OUA West) Playoff Record: 0-1 (lost to Western OUA playoffs 1st round) As a veteran coach with decades of experience, Mark Walton has preached a consistent message with his teams – trust in the process. It was no different when he took over a rebuilding Gryphon program in 2016. Guelph’s players came to work last offseason and were ready to go when the OUA schedule began. Key veterans like Sarah Holmes, Hayley Belyk, Quincy Sickles-Jarvis, Megan Brenkel, Ashley Wheeler and Ivana Vujadinovic comprised the core of the team but the Gryphons got a bigger boost than they could have imagined from the arrival of rookie guard tandem Skyla Minaker and Burke Bechard. Guelph certainly took a while to jell, starting the season with three straight losses. But the wins began to pile up and the Gryphons went over .500 after a dominant 71-44 victory over Nipissing on the road in late November. Guelph took a step back losing five of its next six, but a blowout win at Brock was a turning point. The Gryphons established an identity and utilized a blend of suffocating defence and unselfish play at the offensive end to take seven of the last eight games. They welcomed back Holmes from an illness late in the season and the third-year guard went off, providing an offensive spark and deep threat that completed the puzzle. The last game of the season against Western determined whether Guelph would host the Mustangs the following week or travel to London in the first round. The Gryphons went down early but Holmes and Minaker each produced career-highs of 25 and 22 points respectively to help the team clinch home court. The playoff rematch was unfolding the same way with Western’s red-hot shooting guiding the visitors to a lead. Guelph again battled back and though Bechard gave her team a one- point margin inside the last minute, the Gryphons could not hang on and were eliminated 72-68 in a heartbreaker. It was the final game for graduating seniors Belyk, Sickles-Jarvis and Brenkel. But as Coach Walton would say, his players would learn from the defeat – and it was part of the process. Marija Bakoc 1L Sarah Holmes 3L Modupe Okeowo -1L Quincy Sickles-Jarvis4H Burke Bechard 1L Julia Kokonis 3L Allyson Peek 2L Ivana Vujadinovic 3L Haley Belyk 4H Skyla Minaker 1L Hanna Pryce 2L Ashley Wheeler 3L Megan Brenkel 4H Nyasha Mombeshora2L Alexis Pulford-Thorpe 1L Ashley White 1L Head Coach: Mark Walton Assistants: Sasha Ameri, Alexis Heit, Megan Reid, Dana Van Balkom Managers: Petra Blackburn, Samantha Renshaw Coordinator: Howard Kiel Trainers: Alida Carlin, Jess Reis Strength & Conditioning Coach: Josh Ford Team Awards MIP- Sarah Holmes MVP- Burke Bechard OUA Awards OUA All-Rookie Team- Burke Bechard 2016-2017 Season Record: 5-14 (4th in OUA Central, 14th in RPI) Playoff Results: DNQ Fielding one of the youngest teams in the conference in 2016-17, the Gryphons women’s basketball team came agonizingly close to sneaking into the OUA playoffs, finishing 14th in the RPI rankings (top 12 make postseason). Four of the team’s five wins on the season came in the final seven games of the season. In the final game of the regular season, the Gryphons hosted the Waterloo Warriors but fell 86-73, ending the team’s chances of securing the final spot in the OUA playoffs. After playing their first two home games of the season at the 60-year-old W.F. Mitchell Centre, the Gryphons officially moved to their new home court (the newly built Guelph Gryphons Athletics Centre) on Friday, January 13, 2017 when they hosted the Laurier Golden Hawks. The Gryphs posted a 2-5 record on their new home court, with their first win on the new court coming on January 27 versus Algoma. The 2016- 17 season also marked the first season in charge for new head coach Mark Walton who was named head coach in July of 2016. A trio of Gryphons finished the season with double-digit scoring averages as Megan Brenkel (11.8 PPG), Sarah Holmes (11.6 PPG) and Ashley Wheeler (10.3 PPG) all impressed in their first full year as starters. All but one of the players from the 2016-17 roster will be eligible to return for the 2017-18 season, as point guard Samantha Renshaw was the lone senior to be acknowledged on senior night. Renshaw, who also was in her first full season as a starter, enjoyed the best year of her Gryphon career, averaging 7.2 PPG while starting in 16 of the Gryphons 19 regular season contests. Haley Belyk 3L Julia Kokonis 2L Samantha Renshaw 3L Petra Blackburn 1L Nyasha Mombeshora 1L Quincy Sickles-Jarvis 3L Megan Brenkel 3L Modupe Okeowo 1L Ivana Vujadinovic 2L Abbey Clark 2L Allyson Peek 1L Ashley Wheeler 2L Sarah Holmes 2L Hanna Pryce 1L Team Awards M.I.P. – Haley Belyk M.V.P. – Sarah Holmes Head Coach: Mark Walton (1st season) Lead Assistant Coach: Joe Polizzi Assistant Coach: Alexis Heit Assistant Coach: Jenny Vaughan Assistant Coach: Jennifer Nadalin Director of Basketball Operations: Howard Kiel Team Manager: Brittany Thalen Team Manager: Anissa Rizzo 2015-2016 Regular Season Record: 11-2 (2nd OUA Central) Playoff Record: 1-1 (lost to Ottawa in quarter-finals) When players, coaches and fans of the Gryphons women's basketball team look back on the 2015-16 season, they will do so with fond memories. For the first time in nearly a decade, the team posted a winning record, qualified for the playoffs and won a postseason game on home court. The Gryphons finished the regular season with an 11-2 record good enough for second in the OUA central division and earned the right to host a first round playoff game. A strong and gritty defence was a main ingredient in the Gryphons success this season as they finished top five in the conference in points allowed per game and steals per game. In the OUA preliminary round the Gryphons defeated the visiting Brock Badgers 69-51 to mark the team’s first postseason win since 2007. In the next round, the Gryphons traveled to the nation’s capital to take on a tough Ottawa Gee-Gee’s team and unfortunately dropped the OUA Quarter-Final game by a score of 55-43. Three members of the squad were recognized by the OUA. Second-year point guard Bridget Atkinson was named a Second-Team All-Star after finishing the year top 10 in the conference in steals (10) and assists (66) while averaging 11.8 points per game. Kate MacTavish was also named to the Second- Team after leading the Gryphons in scoring with 14.9 points per game, ranking her ninth in the conference and recording a team-high 9.1 rebounds per game. She also led the OUA with an impressive 89.6 free throw percentage. First-year Abbey Clark earned a spot on the All-Rookie Team after appearing in 15 games as a freshman and shot an impressive 41 percent from beyond the arc. Bridget Atkinson 2L Julia Kokonis 1L Samantha Renshaw -2L Haley Belyk 2L Regan Duff 3L Quincy Sickles-Jarvis2L Megan Brenkel 2L Sarah Holmes 1L Katherine MacTavish5L Abbey Clark 1L Barb Inrig-Pieterse 5L Vanessa Rampado 4H Dana Van Balkom 5L Ivana Vujadinovic 1L Ashley Wheeler 1L Katelyn Yallin 4H Coach: Christin Dickenson Director of Operations: Howard Kiel Assistants: Alexis Heit, Joe Polizzi, Jenny Vaughan Managers: Rebecca Morris, Brittany Thalen Strength & Conditioning Coach: Josh Ford Trainer: Emily Coleman Recruiting Assistant: Justin Tomabuono 2014-2015 Regular Season Record: 8-11 (4th in OUA Central) Playoff Record: did not make playoffs The Gryphons narrowly missed out on an OUA playoff berth in 2014-2015.