West Coast Conference Women's Basketball Player of the Year

WCC Women's Basketball Player of the Year
Awarded for	the most outstanding basketball player in the West Coast Conference
Country	United States
First awarded	1986
Currently held by	Lexi Rydalch, BYU

The West Coast Conference (WCC) Women's Basketball Player of the Year is a basketball award given to the most outstanding women's basketball player in the West Coast Conference. The award has been given ever since the conference first sponsored women's basketball in the 1985–86 season, when it was known as the West Coast Athletic Conference. There has been one tie in the history of the award, in 2006–07 between Stephanie Hawk of Gonzaga and Amanda Rego of Santa Clara (coincidentally, players from the same two schools were involved in a tie for the WCC Men's Player of the Year Award that season^[1]). There have also been a total of three repeat winners, but only one—Courtney Vandersloot of Gonzaga—has been Player of the Year three times.

No one WCC school has dominated the total awards distribution over time. The overall leader is Gonzaga, with seven awards; Saint Mary's and Santa Clara are next, each with five awards. However, Gonzaga and BYU have dominated in recent years; Gonzaga has earned all of its awards since 2005, and BYU, which only joined the WCC in 2011, has won four awards in its first five seasons in the league. Each current WCC member except for Pacific has at least one award. Pacific had been a charter member of what is now the WCC, but left in 1971, long before the conference sponsored women's sports, and did not return until 2013. The only former WCC women's basketball member that failed to produce an award winner was Nevada, which only participated in the conference's first two women's basketball seasons (1985–86 and 1986–87).

Key

†	Co-Players of the Year
*	Awarded a national Player of the Year award: the Naismith College Player of the Year, the John R. Wooden Award, or Wade Trophy
Player (X)	Denotes the number of times the player has received the Player of the Year award

Winners

Gonzaga's Courtney Vandersloot, the only three-time winner, is also the first NCAA Division I player of either sex with 2,000 points and 1,000 assists in a career.

Season	Player	School	Position	Class	Reference
1985–86	Carter, SonyaSonya Carter	U.S. International		Freshman
1986–87	Hunt, TeriTeri Hunt	San Francisco		Senior
1987–88	Lindstrom, DorindaDorinda Lindstrom	Santa Clara		Senior
1988–89	Bordt, AnjaAnja Bordt	Saint Mary's		Sophomore
1989–90	Bordt, AnjaAnja Bordt (2)	Saint Mary's		Junior
1990–91	King, MelissaMelissa King	Santa Clara		Sophomore
1991–92	Sheldon, MarthaMartha Sheldon	Portland		Senior
1992–93	King, MelissaMelissa King (2)	Santa Clara		Senior
1993–94	Silvernall, ChristineChristine Silvernall[2][3]	Santa Clara		Senior
1994–95	Claboe, AmyAmy Claboe	Portland		Senior
1995–96	Sale, LauraLaura Sale	Portland		Senior
1996–97	Lansing, DeanaDeana Lansing	Portland		Senior
1997–98	Sacco, LisaLisa Sacco	Santa Clara		Senior
1998–99	Morris, TracyTracy Morris	Saint Mary's		Junior
1999–2000	Clark, RasheedaRasheeda Clark	Pepperdine		Junior
2000–01	Dosty, JermishaJermisha Dosty	Saint Mary's		Junior
2001–02	Dosty, JerkishaJerkisha Dosty	Saint Mary's		Senior
2002–03	McDonald, TamaraTamara McDonald	Pepperdine		Senior
2003–04	Murray, KateKate Murray	Loyola Marymount		Senior
2004–05	Matthews, ShannonShannon Matthews	Gonzaga		Senior
2005–06	Cozad, MichelleMichelle Cozad	Santa Clara		Senior
2006–07^†	Hawk, StephanieStephanie Hawk	Gonzaga		Senior
2006–07^†	Rego, AmandaAmanda Rego	San Diego		Junior
2007–08	Bowman, HeatherHeather Bowman	Gonzaga		Sophomore
2008–09	Vandersloot, CourtneyCourtney Vandersloot	Gonzaga	Point guard	Sophomore
2009–10	Vandersloot, CourtneyCourtney Vandersloot (2)	Gonzaga	Point guard	Junior
2010–11	Vandersloot, CourtneyCourtney Vandersloot (3)	Gonzaga	Point guard	Senior
2011–12	Riley, KristenKristen Riley	BYU	Forward	Senior	[4]
2012–13	Karr, TaelorTaelor Karr	Gonzaga	Shooting guard	Senior	[5]
2013–14	Hamson, JenniferJennifer Hamson	BYU	Center	Senior	[6]
2014–15	Bailey, MorganMorgan Bailey	BYU	Forward	Senior	[7]
2015–16	Rydalch, LexiLexi Rydalch	BYU	Guard	Senior	[8]

Winners by school

Note: Years of entry for each school are the actual calendar years they joined the WCC and first played women's basketball in the conference. Because the basketball season spans two calendar years, the award years reflect the years in which each season ended.

School	Joined WCC as full member	Joined WCC women's basketball	Winners	Years
Gonzaga	1979	1987[9]	7	2005, 2007^†, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2013
Saint Mary's	1952	1987[10]	5	1989, 1990, 1999, 2001, 2002
Santa Clara	1952	1985[11]	5	1991, 1993, 1994, 1998, 2006
BYU	2011	2011[12]	4	2012, 2014, 2015, 2016
Portland	1976	1987[13]	4	1992, 1995, 1996, 1997
Pepperdine	1955	1985[14]	2	2000, 2003
Loyola Marymount	1955	1985[15]	1	2004
San Diego	1979	1985[16]	1	2007^†
San Francisco	1952	1985[17]	1	1987
U.S. International	—	1985^[a]	1	1986
Nevada	—	1985^[b]	0	—
Pacific	1952/2013^[c]	2013	0	—

Footnotes

• ^a U.S. International joined the then-WCAC as an affiliate member in women's basketball when the conference began sponsoring the sport. It left the conference after the 1986–87 season. Within four years of its departure from the WCAC, the school went bankrupt and dropped intercollegiate athletics.
• ^b The University of Nevada, Reno (Nevada), which had left the then-WCAC in 1979 for the Big Sky Conference, rejoined the WCAC as a women's sports affiliate in 1985. The Wolf Pack left after the 1986–87 season for the Mountain West Athletic Conference, a women's-only conference that was absorbed by the Big Sky Conference and is not to be confused with the Wolf Pack's current all-sports home, the Mountain West Conference.^[18]
• ^c The University of the Pacific was a founding member of the California Basketball Association, later the WCAC and now the WCC, in 1952. Pacific left the conference in 1971 to join its football team in the Pacific Coast Athletic Association, now the Big West Conference. After dropping football in 1995, Pacific rejoined the WCC in 2013.^[19][20]

References

General

• Names of winners through 2010–11: "Awards and Honors: WCC Honors by Year" (PDF). 2010–11 Women's Basketball Year in Review. West Coast Conference. p. 62. Retrieved March 11, 2013.
• Class years of winners through 2010–11: "Awards and Honors: All-Conference Teams" (PDF). 2010–11 Women's Basketball Year in Review. West Coast Conference. p. 63. Retrieved March 11, 2013.

Specific

1. "WCC Individual Honors" (PDF). 2012–13 West Coast Conference Men's Basketball Record Book. West Coast Conference. Retrieved March 14, 2013.
2. Players of the Year can be found in two different places in the referenced WCC record book—in the dedicated list on page 62, and designated in the list of All-Conference players on page 63. The 1993–94 season is the only one in which the two designations disagree. Silvernall is included in the dedicated list of Players of the Year; in addition, Santa Clara claims her as WCC Player of the Year in its official record book.
3. "Honors and Awards: Athletic Honors" (PDF). Santa Clara Broncos Women's Basketball Records & History, 2012–13. Santa Clara University Sports Information. Retrieved March 11, 2013.
4. "2011–12 West Coast Conference Women's Basketball Weekly Release: March 27, 2012" (PDF) (Press release). West Coast Conference. Retrieved March 11, 2013.
5. "West Coast Conference Announces 2013 Women's Basketball All-Conference Team" (Press release). West Coast Conference. March 5, 2013. Retrieved March 11, 2013.
6. "WCC Announces Women's Basketball All-Conference Team" (Press release). West Coast Conference. March 3, 2014. Retrieved March 8, 2014.
7. "WCC Announces Women's Basketball All-Conference Team" (Press release). West Coast Conference. March 3, 2015. Retrieved March 4, 2015.
8. "WCC Announces Women's Basketball All-Conference Team" (Press release). West Coast Conference. March 1, 2016. Retrieved March 1, 2016.
9. "2012–13 Gonzaga Women's Basketball Media Guide" (PDF). Gonzaga University Sports Information. Retrieved March 11, 2013. See "Gonzaga Year-by-Year" table on page 29 and full "Year-by-Year Results" on Page 42.
10. "Year-by-Year Results" (PDF). 2012–13 Saint Mary's Women's Basketball Records. Saint Mary's College Sports Information. p. 78. Retrieved March 13, 2013. Note: The content of Page 78 is duplicated on Page 79.
11. "Year-by-Year Results" (PDF). 2012–13 Santa Clara Women's Basketball Records. Santa Clara University Sports Information. Retrieved March 14, 2013.
12. "BYU Becomes Ninth Member of West Coast Conference" (Press release). West Coast Conference. July 1, 2011. Retrieved March 14, 2013.
13. "Season Summaries" (PDF). 2012–13 Portland Pilots Women's Basketball History & Records. University of Portland Sports Information. p. 17. Retrieved March 14, 2013.
14. "2012–13 Pepperdine Women's Basketball Records Book". Pepperdine University Sports Information. p. 3. Retrieved March 14, 2013. Click the thumbnail on the left side of the page to access the virtual book.
15. "Year-by-Year Results" (PDF). 2012–13 LMU Women's Basketball Record Book. Loyola Marymount University Sports Information. p. 68. Retrieved March 14, 2013.
16. "Team Records: Torero Women's Basketball Year-by-Year". 2012–13 San Diego Toreros Women's Basketball Media Guide. University of San Diego Sports Information. p. 113. Retrieved March 14, 2013.
17. "Year-by-Year Results" (PDF). 2010–11 San Francisco Dons Women's Basketball Almanac. University of San Francisco Sports Information. p. 49. Retrieved March 14, 2013.
18. "Year-by-Year Results" (PDF). 2012–13 Nevada Women's Basketball Information Guide. University of Nevada, Reno Sports Information. p. 55. Retrieved March 11, 2013.
19. "University of the Pacific accepts invitation to join West Coast Conference in 2013-14 academic Year" (Press release). West Coast Conference. March 28, 2012. Retrieved July 29, 2013.
20. Dhillon, Jagdip (March 29, 2012). "Tigers back 'home'". The Record. Stockton, California. Retrieved March 31, 2012.