WEST REGION CROSSOVER CLASSIC SCHEDULE
Friday, Nov. 18                     Seattle Pacific vs. Cal State San Marcos, 11:00 a.m.
                                      The Pavilion @ Whatcom CC / Bellingham, Wash.
                                      No live Webcast      Live stats
 
Saturday, Nov. 19                Seattle Pacific vs. Azusa Pacific, 11:00 a.m.
                                      The Pavilion @ Whatcom CC / Bellingham, Wash.
                                      No live Webcast      Live stats


SEATTLE – The Seattle Pacific Falcons are confident they have the right pieces – talent, depth, and experience – to contend with the best women's basketball teams in the West.
 
They'll get to find out on the very first weekend of the season how they stack up against a pair of opponents who are regarded as two of the top teams in the region and in the country, as well.
 
SPU tips off its 2022-23 schedule this weekend when it tangles with preseason No. 12-ranked Cal State San Marcos and No. 21 Azusa Pacific in the West Region Crossover Classic at Bellingham's Whatcom Community College. Both are the preseason favorites in their respective circuits – San Marcos in the California Collegiate Athletic Association; Azusa in the Pacific West Conference.
 
Up first is San Marcos on Friday at 11:00 a.m. Azusa Pacific will be on the other side of the court on Saturday at 11:00.
 
Seattle Pacific is coming off a 12-18 record in 2021-22. The Falcons won their play-in game in the GNAC Tournament last March on their home court before the season ended with a loss to Alaska Anchorage in the quarterfinals.
 
Head coach Mike Simonson is beginning his fifth season at the helm and heads into competition with a roster of nine veterans and five newcomers.
 
FOLLOW IT LIVE
Live Webcasts will not be available this weekend. However, both games will have live stats. The appropriate link is at the top of this page.
 
SAME TOURNAMENT, DIFFERENT VENUE
The tournament will be played in The Pavilion at Whatcom Community College, 237 W. Kellogg Road. It is located right off Kellogg Road. As a point of reference, there are pickleball courts in front of the building. Free parking is available. Heading north up Interstate 5, take Exit 256 A/B toward Washington 539 / Meridian Avenue. Turn right on Meridian for 0.8 miles, then left on Kellogg Road for 0.2 miles. Take the second exit out of the roundabout for  0.1 miles.
 
The tournament originally was scheduled for Carver Gymnasium at Western Washington University, the home of all Vikings basketball games and volleyball matches. However, Western is hosting the NCAA West Region volleyball tournament on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. That made it necessary to seek an alternate venue.
 




SO WHAT'S THE STORY THIS WEEK?
-- The Falcons will be tipping off their 48th season of women's basketball.
-- SPU started its program in the 1974-75 season as a club team. It became an official varsity program the following season.
-- Mike Simonson is beginning his fifth year as head coach. His overall record is 35-64.
-- Seattle Pacific has a 36-11 record in season-opening games. That includes last year's 63-38 victory in Brougham Pavilion against Corban University of Salem, Oregon.
-- Friday's game against Cal State San Marcos will be just the second between the schools. The first one was last Nov. 19 on the Cougars' home court as part of the Cal State San Marcos Hoops Classic. CSSM won, 71-50.
-- The Falcons did not wind up with anyone in double-digit points that day. Now-graduated Bayley Brennan led the way with 9. Ashley Alter and Natalie Hoff added 8 apiece.
-- SPU and Azusa Pacific have become regular preseason opponents. This will be the 12th meeting.
-- They played on the second day of last year'sSan Marcos tourney. The Falcons were on the brink of winning it, up 53-46 with 4:13 left in regulation. But APU came back to force overtime, then scored the first eight points of the extra session to take it, 67-61.
-- Seattle Pacific was 5-11 out of town last year, including 2-3 on neutral courts. Both of this week's games will be neutral.
 
SCOUTING THE CAL STATE SAN MARCOS COUGARS: 1-0, 0-0 CCAA
All-time series: CSSM leads, 1-0.  Current series streak: CSSM won 1.  Last time: CSSM 71, SPU 50 (Nov. 19, 2021 at San Marcos). CSSM on the Web.
CSSM in a nutshell: Although leading scorer Akayla Hackson graduated, the Nos. 2, 3, and 4 scorers for the Cougars are all back for another season. Jordan Vasquez, a junior 6-foot forward, averaged 13.7 points on .547 shooting. Her 140 makes from the field were the most on the team. She also pulled down a team-high 9.3 rebounds per game. Senior 5-8 guard Dynnah Buckner was right behind Vasquez at 13.2 points per game, and shot a solid .448 from the floor. Including .402 (35 of 87) from 3-point range. Kelsey Forrester, a redshirt senior 5-7 guard, chipped in 11.2 points per game, and led the Cougars from behind the arc with 73 makes, hitting at a .395 clip from there. Sophomore 5-4 guard Charity Gallegos also could provide an offensive boost. She poured in a team-leading 17 points on 6-of-11 shooting (5 of 6 downtown) in a 77-51 non-conference rout of Point Loma Nazarene on Tuesday. Joining San Marcos is redshirt sophomore guard Malia Mastora, who was with SPU the past two seasons.
 
SCOUTING THE AZUSA PACIFIC COUGARS: 2-1 0-0 Pac West
All-time series: SPU leads, 8-4.  Current series streak: APU won 3.  Last time: APU 67, SPU 61 OT (Nov. 20, 2021 at San Marcos). Last SPU series win: SPU 80, APU 69 (Nov. 17, 2017 at Azusa, Calif.).  APU on the Web. APU in a nutshell: Azusa already has played three nonconference games, dropping a close one to Cal Poly Pomona, but then posting double-digit margins against Cal State San Bernardino (69-59) and Cal State Los Angeles (93-70). TyLee Manuel, a junior 6-foot-1 forward who came off the bench in 28 of the 29 games last year and averaging 4.9 points and 4.1 rebounds, has started all three contests this year and is averaging a whopping 20.7 points on .722 shooting (26 of 36), along with 6.7 rebounds. She went off for 31 against CSULA. Junior 5-7 guard Paige Uyehara, the Pac West Preseason Player of the Year, has picked up right where she left off last season, averaging 12.3 points and 7.7 assists. Also returning is 6-foot sophomore forward Kelly Heimburger (8.7 points and 6.7 rebounds through the first three) and junior 6-2 forward Molly Whitmore (8.7 points, 5.3 rebounds).
 
SCOUTING THE 2022-23 FALCONS
After the somewhat-chaotic 2021-22 campaign ended with a trip to the postseason, Seattle Pacific and fifth-year head coach Mike Simonson are taking aim at less chaos – and more postseason.
 
With all 10 Great Northwest Athletic Conference schools being affected in some way by games that were postponed or outright canceled because of the coronavirus pandemic, SPU was one of just four schools that played all 18 of its GNAC games.
 
Then, when the conference tournament was expanded to include all 10 schools, the Falcons got the No. 7 seed, rolled past Alaska Fairbanks in the play-in round, then battled down to the wire against Alaska Anchorage in the quarterfinals before the Seawolves prevailed.
 
 

Heading up Simonson's 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 of them earned Honorable Mention status.
 
That respect from GNAC coaches carried over to this year's Preseason All-GNAC squad. Alter was voted to it for the second year in a row – both times unanimously – and Hoff was named to the squad for the first time.
 
 

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 defensive-minded 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 blocked shots.
 
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), 5-7 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. Chiara 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 TABBED FOR 7TH IN GNAC
Coming off a season got as far as the quarterfinals of the Great Northwest Athletic Conference Tournament, the Falcons have been picked for a seventh-place finish in the upcoming season.
 
Seattle Pacific 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.
 
EXHIBITION EXCERPTS
-- The Falcons played a pair of exhibition games They dropped an 87-51 decision at Idaho on Oct. 30, then rolled past Pacific Lutheran, 66-33 on Nov. 5.
-- The Idaho game was decided in large part at the free throw line. SPU was 13 of 17; the Vandals drained 30 of 37.
-- Anna Eddy led the Falcons that day with 13 points.
-- A trio of SPU players hit double figures against PLU: Natalie Hoff with 16, Schuyler Berry 14, and Lolo Weatherspoon with 11. Those three shot a combined 19 of 25 from the field (76 percent).
-- The Falcons hit a respectable 45.5 percent vs. the Lutes (30 of 66). They were frosty from downtown that day (just 3 of 20 for 15 percent), but took advantage of their higher-percentage shots, hitting 27 of 46 (58.9 percent).
 
AROUND THE WEST
While Western Washington is favored to the win the GNAC title, Cal State San Marcos is the preseason pick in the California Collegiate Athletic Association. The Cougars received 10 of the 12 first-place votes and 142 points. Cal State Los Angeles got one first and 128 points. The other first-place nod went to Cal State Dominguez Hills, which wound up third with 111.
 
In the Pacific West Conference, Azusa Pacific is regarded as the team to beat, collecting nine of the 11 first-place votes in the preseason coaches poll for 119 points. Dominican is the second pick with 94 points, just ahead of Concordia Irvine, which had 91.
 
UP NEXT
The Falcons head to Colorado for the Regis Thanksgiving Classic preseason tournament in Denver. On Friday, Nov. 25, SPU takes on the host Regis Rangers, tipping off at noon Pacific time. Awaiting on Saturday the 26th is preseason No. 20-ranked Colorado School of Mines, also at noon Pacific.