Seniors Ready To Lead Young Cougars in 2014-15
BY TREVOR WILLIAMS
The Washington State women’s basketball team is lacing up for the 2014-15 season with a championship mindset.
“I’m really excited,” WSU Head Coach June Daugherty said. “I think our kids are in better shape than they’ve been in previous season beginnings.”
Last season, the Cougars were selected to the WNIT and made their first postseason appearance since 1991. WSU was 9-9 in Pac-12 Conference play and nearly punched a ticket to the NCAA tournament, after reaching the semifinal of the Pac-12 Conference tournament.
“Being in the postseason last year and reaching the semifinals of the Pac-12 Tournament for the second time in three years are things that definitely drive us and it’s an exciting thing to shoot for,” Daugherty said.
The Cougars are now led by a new crop of seniors in guard Tia Presley and center Shalie Dheensaw.
“I’m really excited about the leadership. I think that Shalie (Dheensaw), Tia (Presley) and junior forward Mariah (Cooks) have done a lot of great things for themselves to get in shape, stronger, and more skilled,” said Daugherty. “Additionally, I think that they’ve also spent a lot of time with the underclassmen, getting them ready for what I think is going to be a great season.”
Presley will also receive help from junior guard Lia Galdeira. The duo combined to be the fifth and seventh-highest scoring guards in the Pac-12, respectively, last season.
“I love playing with Lia (Galdeira),” Presley said. “It’s crazy that two scoring guards can play together and work so well off of each other, so I think that Lia and I just found a balance. It’s been so much fun playing with her.”
The seniors have been instrumental to the program’s rise over the past four years, while witnessing the change firsthand.
“I think we’ve proven and we’ve known that we can be a great team, and one of the best in the country,” Dheensaw said. “Now is the time where we are going to start showing people what we can do and it’s going to be really exciting.”
Heading into the 2014-15 season, with seven new faces and a fresh schedule ahead of them, the Cougars still feel as though there is plenty to prove.
“As people now know, the Pac-12 preseason rankings have us eighth and I think that really got us fired up,” Dheensaw said. “We’re ready to show people that we’re not an eighth-place team.”
Presley echoed the expectation of a strong season in Pullman.
“You can never look too far ahead,” she said, “but the ultimate goal this year is to win a Pac-12 Championship and then move on to the NCAA Tournament.”