Breakdown
Going into this season, King’s was already getting plenty of players back from a team that finished fifth in the state last season.
Now they’re getting help from the Knights volleyball team.
Alysanne Van Dyke, who just got finished with a successful volleyball season that saw her named the conference’s player of the year, is turning out for basketball, which she hasn’t played in her high school.
The tall and athletic senior gives King’s an extra post player to go along with returning starter senior Karly Hibbard (7.5 points per game) and sophomore Kendall Adams. In the backcourt King’s is led by sisters Savanna and Daylee Hanson and sophomore guard Anna Parker.
Van Dyke may be a little rusty coming back to basketball, but she is far from a stranger to the sport: Her father is Northwest University men’s basketball coach and former King’s boys basketball coach John Van Dyke.
Defending conference co-champions Cedarcrest and Archbishop Murphy will have to replace a lot of star power, including league MVP Beth Carlson and all-conference selection Madison Pollock for the Wildcats and all-conference selections Kailyn Campbell and Sarah Stauffer for the Red Wolves. Pollock, a sophomore wing, is now playing for Snohomish.
Cedarcrest still has first-team all-conference guards Susan Kenney and Kalee Fowler, who will both be counted on for the lions’ share of the team’s scoring this season.
One team the could be a surprise is Coupeville. Led by their main workhorse sophomore Makana Stone, the Wolves also have two seniors in Amanda Fabrizi and Breeanna Messner that could help them make a run at a state berth.
The Starting 5: The Herald’s Preseason All-League Team
- G Susan Kenney, Sr., Cedarcrest: The second-leading scorer in the Cascade Conference (15.3 ppg) and first-team all-conference selection gives the Red Wolves a potent scorer that leads with her aggressiveness.
- G Kalee Fowler, Sr., Cedarcrest: The yin to Kenney’s yang in the backcourt, this senior guard also made all-conference first team last year and will give the Red Wolves the upper hand in the backcourt in nearly every matchup.
- Savanna Hanson, Jr., King’s: Starting since she was a freshman, the Knights guard averaged 10 points per game last season in leading King’s to a fifth-place finish at state.
- Marissa Blair, Sr., Lakewood: As a freshman, the Cougars forward was named to the all-conference second team after averaging 13.1 points per game. She’ll be counted on to do more if Lakewood is to make districts.
- Jessica Hopkins, Sr., Sultan: The Turks run to the district tournament last year was built on a number of players’ shoulders, but the Turks senior is who the offense runs through.
Fresh face: Natalie Neer, Fr., Lakewood
The transfer from Tenino H.S. is a 5-foot-5 guard who can shoot and handle the ball and gives Lakewood a pure point guard to go with posts Blair and Cassidy Dvorak.
Coaches poll
1. King’s
2. Cedarcrest
3. Archbishop Murphy
4. Coupeville
5. Sultan
6. Lakewood
7. South Whidbey
8. Granite Falls
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