Women's Basketball Celebrates 2014-15 Season

BOULDER - The University of Colorado women's basketball team reflected on the 2014-15 season with its annual awards celebration alongside school administrators, family members, donors and fans Wednesday evening at the Byron R. White Club Level of Folsom Field.

Colorado's coaching staff recognized 12 letterwinners and honored the Buffaloes' four graduating seniors in Lexy Kresl, Jen Reese, Jasmine Sborov and Arielle Roberson. In addition, fifth-year head coach Linda Lappe and her staff also handed out several individual awards.

Sophomore guard Haley Smith won the Crystal Ford-Adams Scholar-Athlete Award. Former Buffalo and two-time Academic All-Big Eight Conference performer Jen Terry was on hand to present the honor.

A native of Samammish, Wash., Smith sports a 3.69 GPA through the Fall 2014 semester which is the highest GPA on the team among those with at least three semesters completed. She earned honorable mention to the 2015 Pac-12 Conference Women's Basketball All-Academic Team in her first season of eligibility for that program. She is majoring in mechanical engineering with a focus on biomedical engineering.

Smith led Colorado and ranked ninth in the Pac-12 in field goal percentage (.472). She hit 88 percent from the line (51-of-58) but fell just below the minimum number of attempts to be ranked on the league leaderboard. That number was good enough though for the ninth best single-season mark in team history (minimum 50 attempts). Smith was third on the team in rebounding (5.4 rpg) and fourth in scoring (9.4 ppg).

Junior forward Jamee Swan received the Lisa Van Goor rebounding award after leading the Buffaloes at 7.9 boards per contest. The award was presented by Van Goor, CU's all-time leading rebounder.

Swan, who ranked sixth overall in the Pac-12 in rebounding, had 10 games with double figure rebounds including a career and team single-game high of 15 against Long Beach State. She had a team-best eight double-doubles, with the last being an 18-point, 13-rebound effort in the Pac-12 quarterfinal upset win over top seeded and No. 8/9 ranked Oregon State.

She ranked fourth in the Pac-12 in offensive rebounds, finishing with a total of 101 on the season. Swan past the 500-rebound milestone during the season and enters her senior year in 17th in Colorado history with 577

Senior Jasmine Sborov was presented the Ceal Barry Colorado Pride Award, named after the CU Athletic Hall of Fame coach. In the spirit of the Coaches Award given out by Barry during her 22-year career on the Buffaloes bench, this award is given to the player who shows pride in the program through leadership on the court, campus and community, work ethic on the court and in the classroom and who is unselfish and coachable.

Sborov has been a vital part of Colorado women's basketball's community service efforts during her career and has participated in a wide variety of events. A nominee for the 2015 AllState WBCA Good Works Team, Sborov's community service resume included National Girls and Women in Sports Day, Healthy Kids Day, Imagine!, and coaching with an AAU girls basketball team. She recently attended the WBCA's So You Want To Be A Coach program at the association's national convention.

Barry was on hand to present the award to Sborov who became a well-respected voice of the team and whose insights into the state of the program were well thought out and delivered both to internal and external groups. She went through the adversity of a season-ending injury as a junior and took that time to develop her coaching and leadership skills. Sborov was able to return for a successful senior season, never at 100 percent, but no one would ever know that by her performance and effort. Her versatility showed up in her numbers on the floor, while not necessarily delivering eye-popping figures, she filled out the box score nicely, to the tune of 6.5 points, 5.0 rebounds, 2.4 assists per game, the final number ranking second on the squad.

The inaugural Aspire2Insprie Award was presented to senior Lexy Kresl by former Big Eight Player of the Year Jamillah Lang. The Aspire2Inspire Award was derived to honor a player that most exemplified the program's core values and dedication to its vision.

Kresl took her game to another level as a senior. She was not a natural point guard, but filled that role beautifully leading the Buffaloes in assists, steals and 3-point field goals. Kresl was able to find a comfortable balance in her game, where she was doing everything at a high level. She would be a distributor on nights and the leading scorer on others.  As the season evolved she also became a vocal leader and grew into that role during the second half of the season.

Kresl's on the court success began to match her off the court exploits. She became the first CU player in nearly a decade to be named Academic All-Conference three straight years and she did it in the Pac-12 which by the sheer number of student-athletes recognized, only 10, is a very exclusive. Kresl is an integrative physiology major carrying a 3.56 overall GPA. She aspires to attend Physician Assistant school after graduating in May and to work in pediatrics.

Kresl averaged 12.4 points, 4.5 assists and 4.4 rebounds as a senior earning honorable mention to the All-Pac-12 team. She wrapped up her illustrious playing career among the all-time finest at Colorado in numerous categories. She ranks fourth in free throw percentage, fifth in 3-point attempts, seventh in 3-pointers made, 11th in games played, 18th in assists and 3-point percentage and 22nd in points.

Colorado finished the 2014-15 season at 15-17 overall and tied for ninth place in the Pac-12 at 6-12.