PORTLAND, Ore. – The Seattle Pacific Falcons know they have some movin' on up to do – and they're eager to get started.
 
SPU was picked for an eighth-place finish in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference women's basketball poll that was released on Friday.
 
The Falcons received 34 points in voting by the conference's 10 coaches. Western Washington and Montana State Billings are essentially co-favorites for the title.
 
Western, a 54-52 winner against the Yellowjackets in the GNAC Tournament championship game, picked up four first-place votes and 91 points. Billings, which won the regular-season crown last year with a 16-2 record (28-7 overall) received five firsts and 90 points. The other first-place vote went to Alaska Anchorage, which is No. 3 overall with 79 points.
 
Seattle Pacific is coming off an 11-18 campaign and finished sixth in GNAC play at 8-10. That got the Falcons into the conference tournament for the second straight year, but Anchorage knocked them out in the first round, 79-57.
 
 

"We have some work to do. But I really think we're going to surprise some people," said interim head coach Karen Byers, who moved up to the top spot on Aug. 19 after former coach Mike Simonson accepted the head job at Biola. "It's just the way the team is playing right now. I think we'll surprise some people with the changes that have been made, the pace, the different offense."
 
The Nos. 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 scorers from last year's team are back in action. The only departure from that top group was forward Olivia Mayer, who averaged 15.7 points and 8.7 rebounds last year as a junior, but decided not to continue with basketball.
 
 

Senior center Schuyler Berry had her best-ever season across multiple statistical categories: 9.7 points, 4.9 rebounds, 26 blocked shots, 43 assists, and 31 steals. She put her 500th point and 300th rebound into the books, Berry played in all 29 games with 26 starts, totaling 841 minutes. She hit 50 percent or better from the field 13 times, including the last six games of the season.
 
 

Returning to run the show at the point is fifth-year guard Hunter Beirne. She averaged a career-best 9.5 points and led the team with 64 assists. Factoring into her scoring average was a career-high 28-point performance in the must-win regular-season finale at Alaska Fairbanks, helping SPU secure a 72-64 victory and the final spot in the GNAC Tournament.
 
 

Senior wing Lolo Weatherspoon averaged a career-best 7.0 points, and also had single-season bests in multiple stat categories with 57 rebounds (2.3 per game), 37 assists, and 32 steals. Layne Kearns quickly became part of SPU's regular rotation as a freshman, seeing time in 27 of the 29 games, with 13 starts. She averaged 5.7 points and 4.1 rebounds and also came up with 26 steals.
 
Also returning for Seattle Pacific are sophomore wing Grace Leasure (4.7 points), sophomore guard Haylie-Anne Ohta (3.0 points, 2.1 rebounds, 28 assists, 20 steals in 28 games with 11 starts) and junior post player Emilia Bishop (2.5 points, 2.5 rebounds).
 
Ready for their first official game action will be 5-9 guard Grace Turley and 6-foot forward / guard Julia Lavigne. Turley is from Mount Si High School east of Seattle and was the conference Defensive MVP as a senior in 2023. Lavigne played a key part in helping Ontario (Calif.) Christian win its league title with an undefeated record in 2023.
 
A group of four newcomers includes two freshmen and two transfers. Madison Rubino, a 6-foot-1 forward, is a junior who played her freshman year at Idaho in 2021-22, did not play in 2022-23, then played at Cal Poly Humboldt last season. With the Lumberjacks, she started 21 of her 26 games, averaging 7.2 points on .447 shooting from the field, plus 5.7 rebounds. She logged three double-doubles. Grad student Peyton Bergevin, a 5-foot-11 wing, played three seasons at Linfield, averaging 2.8 points and 1.5 rebounds.
 
Preparing for their college debuts are 6-foot guard / forward Phoenix Sharp and 5-11 wing Grace Mertes. Sharp scored 1,150 points in three seasons at Awaken Christian High School in Las Vegas, and was both All-Conference and All-State last year as a senior. Mertes helped Timberline High in Boise win the Idaho state championship in 2022.
 
"We're better shooters than last year, and I expect to see more 3-pointers and just more shots in general," Byers said. "Our practices have been focused. They've just been dynamic, how the girls work together and how they're giving each other feedback and taking feedback and just moving ahead as one."
 
The Falcons play their first game of the year next Friday, Oct. 25, with an exhibition at Puget Sound in Tacoma, tipping off at 7:00 p.m.
 
The season officially starts with the D2CCA Canadian Tip-Off Classic in Langley, British Columbia on Friday, Nov. 1. SPU takes on Tampa at 10:30 a.m. in the first of three games in three days. Gannon from Pennsylvania will the opponent on Nov. 2, also at 10:30 a.m., and then it's Dominican on Nov. 3 at 12:45 p.m.
 
 
GNAC PRESEASON WOMEN'S BASKETBALL POLL
Rank      Team (1^st-place votes)                       Points          2023-24 (GNAC / Finish)
1      Western Washington (4)        91      24-7  (14-4 / 2^nd)
2      Montana St. Billings (5)      90      28-7  (16-2 / 1^st)
3      Alaska Anchorage (1)          79      19-9  (13-5 / 3^rd)
4      Central Washington            78      19-12 (10-8 / T4th)
5      Simon Fraser                  59      17-14 (10-8 / T4th)
6      Northwest Nazarene            47       9-15 (7-11 / 7^th)
7      Saint Martin's                37       8-17 (6-12 / 8^th)
8      Seattle Pacific               34      11-18 (8-10 / 6^th)
9      Alaska Fairbanks              20       4-23 (3-15 / T9th)
10     Western Oregon                15      10-13 (3-15 / T9th)
Points awarded on a 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 basis
 

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