Complete Women's Basketball Tournament Bracket (.pdf)
BEREA, Ohio – The Ohio Athletic Conference Tournament champion Baldwin Wallace University women's basketball team will play regional host Calvin (Mich.) College in the first round of the 2015 NCAA Division III National Tournament on Friday, March 6 at a time yet to be determined.
The Yellow Jackets (22-6), who earned the OAC's automatic bid, will play the Knights (27-0),who earned the Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association automatic bid. BW defeated Calvin last season in the BW Invitational championship game by a score of 80-62.
The regional championship game will be played on Saturday, March 7. The other participating schools are North Central (Ill.) College (22-5) and the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh (24-3).
The Yellow Jackets won their sixth OAC Tournamet title under the direction of 25-year veteran Head Coach Cheri Harrer. Harrer, who is 510-185 in her career in Berea, has also won eight OAC regular season titles. This is BW's 13th appearance in the NCAA tournament, including five "Sweet 16" and three "Elite Eight" appearances.
A year ago, the Yellow Jackets posted a 22-6 mark, won the Division III Mid-Atlantic Regional title at York (Pa.) and advanced to the "Sweet 16" where they lost to the eventual national champ, Farleigh-Dickinson (N.J.) Florham.
BW is led by senior All-OAC and Academic All-OAC forward Audrey Smolik (Strongsville) who was the Most Valuable Player of the OAC Tournament after scoring 50 points and grabbing 18 rebounds in three games. She shot 61.3 percent from the floor (19 of 31). Smolik is currently 10th all-time in school history with 1,065 points. She averages a team-high 12.7 points and 6.6 rebounds-per-game.
Sophomore guard Sydney Clark (Parma/ Lake Ridge Academy) joins Smolik in the starting lineup and was on the OAC all-tournament team after scoring 33 points, grabbing 19 rebounds, blocking seven shots, making four steals and passing for a pair of assists. She averages 8.9 ppg. and 4.5 rpg. and tops the team with 26 blocked shots.
The other starters are senior All-OAC guard Shari Mangas (Leipsic) and sophomore forward Clara Lemmon (Canton/Louisville) and sophomore point guard Mackenzie Colombo (Strasburg). Lemmon is third in scoring at 7.8 ppg., second with 6.4 rpg. with 16 blocked shots. Mangas scores 7.7 ppg. and tops the team with 40 three-pointers and shoots 90.9% from the foul line. Colombo scores 6.9 ppg., tops the team with 65 assists and shoots 81% from the charity stripe.
Off the bench, Harrer will play as many as 10 others, including juniors Alissa Munro (Mandfield/ Lexington), Janaya Feaster (Akron/ Archbishop Hoban), Allyson Helleis (Rocky River), Erin Allen (Girard, Pa.), Ally Dehart (Beaver, Pa.) and She'Kiera Brooks (Stow/ Woodridge) and freshmen Megan Schubert (Defiance/Ayersville), Katie Swanson (Elgin, Ill./ St. Edward Catholic Central), Katie Smith (Fairview Park/ Fairview) and Casey Midlik (Medina).
Munro scores 5.6 ppg. and is second with 28 treys. Feaster scores 5.3 ppg. and has 33 assists and a team-leading 39 steals. Helleis averages 2.6 ppg. with seven triples and ranks second with 37 assists.
