MT. CARMEL, Ill. -- Thursday was a day of celebration for the Wabash Valley Lady Warriors basketball team.
An impressive total of 10 players from this year's national tournament team gathered at Spencer Sports Center to confirm where they have signed to play next season.
"Obviously this group here has had tremendous success," said head coach Luke Scheidecker to the crowd gathered for the event.
The athletic success is well documented. Not only did the two-year players make back-to-back trips to the NJCAA Division I national tournament in Lubbock, Texas, but they added to the proud legacy of the WVC program, which has now produced seven such trips in succession (except for the 2020 tourney cancelled because of COVID).
But there is also "success in the classroom," according to Scheidecker, who reported a team GPA of 3.32 during the fall semester. "And this semester grades are great again.
"I am proud of them. They came here and believed in what we were doing, believed in working hard and doing the right thing. And now they all have great opportunities."
The players were all seated next to one another in front of the gathering, and one by one they stood and reported where they were headed next year, and the reason for the choice, in addition to comments about their time at Wabash Valley and words of thanks.
You can watch the ceremony, which was streamed on Facebook Live, here:
Here, in introduction order, are the players and their choices:
Ices Utegg, Georgia Southwestern
Brooklyn Gray, St. Louis
Tamesha Dozier, Evansville
Yiesha Williams, Evansville
Madison Roshelle, Jackson State
Shaulana Wagner, Troy
Grace Hall, Penn State
Jade Salters, Lemoyne-Owen
Chantese Craig, Buffalo
Trinitee Harris, undecided but choosing from three offers
The 2022-23 Lady Warriors finished with a record of 31-2 and a final ranking of No. 12 in the Division I poll. They advanced to the quarterfinals of the national tournament. In the process, they extended their collective winning streaks to seven straight Great Rivers Athletic Conference and NJCAA Midwest District championships, in addition to 113 straight GRAC wins and 99 straight home court victories.
The two-year players compiled a record of 59-4 at WVC.
Wagner and Gray both were named NJCAA All-Americans, Wagner to the First Team (the sixth First Team player selected in program history and first since Keya Patton in 2020), and Gray an Honorable Mention selection.
A total of 20 Lady Warriors have been named to an All-American team.