LINK – ASHLAND UNIVERSITY WOMEN'S BASKETBALL PAGE
LINK – SMALL COLLEGE HOOPS WEB SITE
SmallCollegeHoops.com has released its 2017-18 preseason preview edition of the Women's Division II Bulletin, and Ashland University's women's basketball team is prominently featured.
The Eagle women are the top-ranked team in the Small College Hoops Division II women's preseason poll, senior forward Laina Snyder is the publication's Division II women's national preseason Player of the Year, and Snyder and senior forward Andi Daugherty were chosen as the two Division II women's preseason All-Americans from the Midwest region.
Ashland's women completed Division II's first 37-0 women's or men's basketball season in 2016-17, scoring a Division II women's hoops-record 3,456 points in the process. It was the program's second national championship (2012-13).
The Eagles will go into 2017-18 with the longest winning streak (37 games) of any basketball team, men or women, at any level of the NCAA. That winning streak is tied for the fourth-longest in Division II women's basketball history.
Also last season, Ashland became the first Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference women's basketball program to win both four regular-season and four tournament championships in a six-year period.
In 2016-17, Snyder averaged 17.4 points, 8.8 rebounds, 3.6 assists and 2.8 steals per game while shooting 51.6 percent from the field and 80 percent from the free-throw line. She enters 2017-18 with the following ranks in program history – second in steals (274), and third in points (1,570), field goals made (661) and rebounds (899).
Snyder's junior-season accolades include Division 2 Conference Commissioners Association (D2CCA) regional Scholar-Athlete of the Year, Elite Eight Most Outstanding Player, Division II Basketball Bulletin Player of the Year, first-team All-American from the Women's Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA), D2CCA and Basketball Bulletin; second-team College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) Academic All-America, All-Midwest Region tournament team, D2CCA Midwest Region Player of the Year, first-team D2CCA all-region, GLIAC female Scholar-Athlete of the Year, GLIAC Player of the Year, first-team All-GLIAC, All-GLIAC Defensive team, winter GLIAC Commissioner's Award, GLIAC Academic All-Excellence, six GLIAC South Player of the Week awards, CoSIDA Academic All-District and All-GLIAC Academic Excellence.
Snyder also was featured in the "Faces In The Crowd" section of the May 1 issue of Sports Illustrated.
Last season, Daugherty averaged 15.5 points, 5.7 rebounds, 2.8 assists and 1.4 steals per game, while shooting 54.6 percent from the field, 37.8 percent from the 3-point line and 81.3 percent from the free-throw line. Coming into 2017-18, she ranks third all-time at Ashland in free-throw percentage (78.2), fourth in points (1,516), and fifth in field goals made (589) and field-goal percentage (52.1).
As a junior, Daugherty earned the following laurels - three All-American honors (first-team All-WBCA and second-team D2CCA and Basketball Bulletin), Elite Eight All-Tournament team, second-team CoSIDA Academic All-American, Midwest Regional Tournament Most Outstanding Player, first-team D2CCA all-region, GLIAC Tournament Most Outstanding Player, first-team All-GLIAC, All-GLIAC Defensive team, winter GLIAC Commissioner's Award, GLIAC Academic All-Excellence, three GLIAC South Player of the Week awards, CoSIDA Academic All-District, All-GLIAC Academic Excellence and U.S. Basketball Writers Association Division II Player of the Week on Jan. 3.
Snyder and Daugherty both are returning 2016-17 WBCA All-Americans, and Ashland is the only Division II women's team to have two WBCA All-Americans coming back for the 2017-18 campaign.
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