Sunnyside grad Maldonado leads Providence women’s basketball team to NAIA tournament

Grad student Emilee Maldonado (Sunnyside) has led the women’s basketball team for the University of Providence to the NAIA national tournament.

The Argos (25-6) open first-round play against Talladega of Alabama (20-11) on Friday.

Maldonado reached the 2,000-point of her college career on Feb. 5, and is the Argos’ leading scorer at 17.5 points a game.

She leads the team in scoring, as well as assists (142) and steals (61). Maldonado also averages 4.8 rebounds, which is third best on the team.

She was also recently named first-team All-Frontier Conference for the fourth time in her standout career.

Maldonado isn’t the only player on the team from the Mid-Columbia. Kenedy Cartwright (Chiawana), Alicia Oatis (Kennewick) and Delaney Pink (Chiawana) are all underclassmen on the roster.

There are two other Northwest women’s teams with local ties headed to the NAIA tournament on Friday.

Lewis-Clark State College (27-4) will take on MidAmerican Nazarene (18-11) on Friday.

Guard Madeline Weaver (College Place) plays for LCSC off the bench.

And Eastern Oregon (22-10) will take on Sterling from Kansas (31-2) in another Friday first-round game.

EOU boasts both Sailor Liefke (Sunnyside Christian/Walla Walla Community College) and Maddy Juul (Hermiston) in its starting lineup.

Liefke was most recently named to the first team of the Cascade Collegiate Conference all-conference team. The junior led the Mountaineers in scoring (15.6 points), assists (100) and steals (44).

Juul averages 6.8 points, 6.0 rebounds (third on team), 56 assists (also third), 19 steals and 7 blocked shots.

More sports

▪ Kamiakin’s grad Trystan Vrieling had an outstanding start on the mound for Gonzaga University’s baseball team on Monday, March 7.

Vrieling picked up the victory, as GU beat highly ranked Oklahoma State 2-1. His line is impressive, as he struck out 13 batters in 5 full innings. He surrendered just 2 hits, 4 walks and one unearned run for the Bulldogs to raise his record to 1-1 this season.

GU completed the 3-game sweep of the Cowboys, and the Bulldogs cracked the top 25 poll this week at No. 25.

▪ Junior Ashley Ripplinger (Prosser) had a strong season last fall for the Oregon Institute of Technology volleyball team, which advanced to the national portion of the NAIA tournament before losing twice in pool play.

Ripplinger started all 32 contests for the 24-8 Owls, and she had 175 kills and 73 blocks. The 73 blocks were second best on the team.

Hanford grad Macy Jensen was also part of the team, coming off the bench during the season.

▪ Freshman Laurel Skorina (Walla Walla) placed second in the women’s 200 freestyle, with a time of 2:01.44, for the Colby College (Maine) women’s swim team in a meet against Middlesbury on Jan. 8. Colby is an NCAA Division 3 school.

▪ Senior starting guard Grace Meza (Grandview) completed her college career for Northwest University of Kirkland, which finished with a 17-13 record and made it to that Cascade Collegiate Conference women’s basketball quarterfinals.

Meza averaged 11.5 for NU (ranked third on the team), had 4.5 rebounds (second), 2.2 assists (third) and 2.2 steals (second).

▪ Dani Chang (CBC) and Tihanee Freitas (CBC) were named honorable mention choices for the Cascade Collegiate Conference women’s soccer all-star squad this past fall.

The two play for the University of Providence in Montana, which had a 2-13 record this past season.

Chang finished with 2 goals and an assist, and led the team with 15 shots and 6 shots on goal.

Freitas had three shots on goal for the Argos.

Teammate Megan Haugen (Richland) had a goal, six shots, and two shots on goal this past season for Providence.

▪ Richland senior Joey Weissenfels will be playing baseball next spring for Spokane Community College.

▪ Freshman guard Emma Reed (Liberty Christian) came off the bench to score 5 points and grab 2 rebounds for George Fox University’s women’s basketball team on Feb. 1. However, it wasn’t enough as Lewis & Clark College won the Northwest Conference game 58-53.

Through games on Feb. 1, Reed is averaging 2.5 points a game for GFU (9-10).

▪ Lewis-Clark State College pitcher Trent Sellers (Kennewick) is off to a strong start for the baseball team.

Sellers is 3-0, with a 1.19 earned run average. He’s struck out 27 batters in 22.2 innings pitched, and opposing batters are hitting a paltry .133 off of him.

Sellers, a junior, has been named Cascade College Conference player of the week twice already this young season.

LCSC, as a team, is also off to a hot start with a 15-1 record.

▪ Senior Damen Thacker (WWCC) was near the top of most categories this season for the Montana State University-Billings men’s basketball team, which went 13-15.

Thacker is a transfer from the University of Idaho, where he started most of the last two seasons.

For MSUB, he led the team with 96 assists and 35 steals, and he was second on the squad in scoring at 15.6 points, and second with 5.0 rebounds.