{"id":50372,"date":"2020-11-18T16:54:38","date_gmt":"2020-11-18T23:54:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/fort-lewis-college-womens-basketball-eager-to-disprove-doubters\/"},"modified":"2020-11-18T23:54:38","modified_gmt":"2020-11-18T23:54:38","slug":"fort-lewis-college-womens-basketball-eager-to-disprove-doubters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/fort-lewis-college-womens-basketball-eager-to-disprove-doubters\/","title":{"rendered":"Fort Lewis College women\u2019s basketball eager to disprove doubters"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Jordan
Jordan Vasquez of Fort Lewis College led the RMAC in offensive rebounds as a freshman out of Farmington High School.<\/span>Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald file<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

A year after the Fort Lewis College women\u2019s basketball team finished one spot out of the eight-team Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference tournament, the conference\u2019s coaches expect the Skyhawks to be there in 2021.<\/p>\n

FLC was picked eighth in the RMAC preseason coaches poll released Tuesday<\/a>. The Skyhawks earned 102 points in the poll, one behind seventh-place Regis and only three points out of sixth, held by South Dakota Mines.<\/p>\n

Defensing champion Colorado Mesa University was once again picked to win the conference with 189 points and eight first-place votes. Western Colorado was picked second with 179 points and three first-place votes, while Westminster College was selected third with 177 points and four first-place votes.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe biggest thing for us is we\u2019re not going to look too deep into it,\u201d FLC head coach Orlando Griego said. \u201cIt does provide a motivation factor. We will play with a chip on our shoulder. The girls are motivated and ready to go out and compete.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last year, FLC lost seven consecutive games to close the season to finish 15-12 overall and 11-11 in RMAC play. Four of the losses came by three points or less. That kept a young but talented Skyhawks team out of the conference tournament by only one game.<\/p>\n

FLC lost twice to conference champion Colorado Mesa University by three points in each game. The Skyhawks were able to split with conference power Westminster College in a pair of games each decided by two points.<\/p>\n

Griego feels this year\u2019s Skyhawks team has learned from those close games and is primed to charge into a conference-only schedule in 2020-21 ready to come out on top in those contests.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith our experience in close games, sometimes you need a year of getting that experience. We got a lot of it last year, more than what I wanted, but we got it,\u201d Griego said. \u201cNow, we\u2019re going to lean on it. We know how to finish games and know what it takes to win. That will favor us moving forward. We are looking forward to playing the top-ranked teams in the nation that are in our conference.\u201d<\/p>\n

The WBCA Division II national poll will not be released until January.<\/p>\n

\"Katrina
Katrina Chandler of Durango transferred to Fort Lewis College last season and had a strong junior year. Now a senior, Chandler is an RMAC preseason player to watch.<\/span>Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald file<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

For FLC, senior guard Katrina Chandler of Durango, senior guard Sydney Candelaria of Albuquerque and sophomore forward Jordan Vasquez of Farmington were named RMAC preseason \u201cplayers to watch.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chandler, in her second season with FLC after she transferred to her hometown college after two years at Colorado Mesa, averaged 9.7 points and 3.3 assists per game a year ago.<\/p>\n

Last season, Candelaria averaged 8.8 points, 4.3 rebounds and 2.1 assists per game. Vasquez was the surprise freshman sensation who led FLC with 12.1 points and 6.6 rebounds per game. She led the conference in offensive rebounding and connected on 50.6% of her shots to rank second in the conference.<\/p>\n

\"Sydney
Sydney Candelaria of Fort Lewis College has been a force for FLC since she was a freshman. Now, the senior guard is an RMAC preseason player to watch for the Skyhawks.<\/span>Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald file<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Griego feels she is right in the mix as one of the top players in the RMAC along with Colorado Mesa\u2019s Danielle Turner, Racquel Winetjes of Black Hills State, Denali Pinto of Colorado School of Mines and Whitney Jacob of Regis.<\/p>\n

\u201cDon\u2019t count out Jordan Vasquez,\u201d Griego said. \u201cWith a year of experience under her belt, she\u2019s going to go out there and do her thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

FLC hopes to return to practice Friday after a 14-day quarantine because of a positive COVID-19 test on the team. That led the season opener against South Dakota Mines scheduled for Saturday to be postponed. Now, the Skyhawks aim to open the season Dec. 4-5 at home against Chadron State and Black Hills State.<\/p>\n

jlivingston@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

believes sophomore Vasquez is among RMAC\u2019s elite players<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":50373,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[600,992,132,427],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-50372","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-basketball","tag-college-sports","tag-fort-lewis-college","tag-prep-sports"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50372","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50372"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50372\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50373"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50372"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50372"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50372"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=50372"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}