PORTLAND, Ore. – Coming off a season got as far as the quarterfinals of the Great Northwest Athletic Conference Tournament, the Seattle Pacific women basketball team has been picked for a seventh-place finish in the upcoming season.
 
The Falcons received 42 points in voting by GNAC coaches.
 
Western Washington, which went all the way to the NCAA Division II championship game last March, is the favorite by a considerable margin to repeat at regular-season champions. The Vikings, who were 25-6 overall and 10-4 in GNAC play, picked up eight of the 10 first-place votes and 98 points.
 
Alaska Anchorage is tabbed for second with one first-place and 84 points. Montana State Billings is close behind in third with the other first-place vote and 81 points.
 
Central Washington, which finished third in the regular season but went on to win the GNAC Tournament, is the fourth-place choice with 67 points.
 
Seattle Pacific went 12-18 overall last season, including 7-11 in conference play to place seventh. It was an unusual season in that all 10 schools were affected in some way by games that were postponed or outright canceled because of the coronavirus. Just four schools (SPU, Central, Northwest Nazarene, and Western Oregon) played all 18 of their GNAC games.
 
Head coach Mike Simonson will begin his fifth season in charge of the Falcons.
 
 

Heading his 14-player roster is a pair of All-GNAC returners. Guard / forward Ashley Alter, now in her fifth year, averaged 9.9 points and 3.4 rebounds, and 1.7 assists per game while often drawing one of the tougher defensive assignments on any given night. Natalie Hoff, a forward also in her fifth year, averaged team highs of 11.9 points and 6.6 rebounds, shooting 43.9 percent from the floor, Both earned Honorable Mention status.

 
 

Anna Eddy, a 5-9 sophomore guard, became a regular in the rotation last year, playing all 30 games with 10 starts. She averaged 7.0 points, shot .425 from the field, including .353 from 3-point range. Hailey Marlow also was a regular, playing 27 games with seven starts. Now a sophomore, the 5-7 point guard averaged 2.3 points.
 
 

Schuyler Berry steadily earned more playing time as a freshman last year. The 6-3 center averaged 12.3 minutes in her 27 games, contributing 3.6 points on .458 shooting, along with 2.3 rebounds and 12 blocks.
 
Other returners who saw various amounts of playing time last winter are 6-2 sophomore guard Maya Hoff (2.9 points / 2.5 rebounds), 5-7 redshirt sophomore guard Hunter Beirne (2.3 / 1.2), sophomore wing Jalena Carlisle, (0.6 / 0.4) and 5-10 sophomore wing Lolo Weatherspoon (0.6 / 0.4).
 
Seattle Pacific has five newcomers in the fold. Emilia Bishop is a 6-3 post player who was with Northern Colorado last season. Chiarro De Virgilio is a 5-7 guard who hails from Argentina and played the past two seasons with Keiser University in Florida, starting all 56 games she played and leading the team in assists both years.
 
Makenna Jacklin is from Kelowna, B.C. and played last year at Idaho. The 6-1 wing player was part of the 2020 B.C. provincial team that won the gold medal in the 2018 Canadian National Championships. Kylie Yung is  5-9 wing from Honolulu who helped her Iolani High School team win two state championships and played previously at the University of Hawaii.
 
The only true freshman among the newbies is Grace Leasure, a 6-foot wing player from Portland. In addition to being a two-time All-Three Rivers League selection, she also posted six top-4 finishes in the Oregon state track and field meet.
 
SPU starts off with two exhibition games, visiting Idaho of the NCAA Division I Big Sky Conference on Sunday, Oct. 30, then hosting Pacific Lutheran on Saturday, Nov. 5, at 4:00 p.m. The regular season begins on Friday and Saturday, Nov. 18-19 in the West Region Crossover Classic at Western Washington in Bellingham, with Cal State San Marcos and Azusa Pacific on the docket.
 
Conference play starts with the Alaska road trip, playing Anchorage on Thursday, Dec. 1, and Fairbanks on Saturday, Dec. 3.
 
The official home opener in Brougham Pavilion is Thursday, Dec. 8 against Lincoln University of Oakland at 5:15 p.m.
 

2022-23 GNAC PRESEASON WOMEN'S BASKETBALL COACHES POLL
Pos.	Team (1st Place Votes)	2021-22 Record	GNAC Record (Place)	Pts.
1.	Western Washington (8)	25-6	10-4 (1st)	98
2.	Alaska Anchorage (1)	20-7	12-4 (2nd)	84
3.	Montana St. Billings (1)	17-12	10-5 (5th)	81
4.	Central Washington	24-8	13-5 (3rd)	67
5.	Simon Fraser	12-14	8-8 (6th)	59
6.	Northwest Nazarene	18-10	12-6 (4th)	55
7.	Seattle Pacific	12-18	7-11 (7th)	42
8.	Saint Martin's	13-14	4-12 (9th)	27
9.	Western Oregon	9-17	5-13 (8th)	22
10.	Alaska	3-20	2-15	15