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CHANGING OF THE GUARDS: Wiggins
will inherit the backcourt from Borchardt and
Suminski.
Gonzalesphoto.com |
FAster. More
aggressive. Deeper. And way more fun. That’s how
four freshmen have transformed the women’s basketball
team, say senior guards Susan King Borchardt and Kelley
Suminski.
“This is a whole different look for us,”
Borchardt says. “We knew we had some great players
coming in, and they have brought so much energy and
a new excitement, which is really refreshing when you’ve
been here longer.”
Spoken like a veteran. Borchardt started all 75 games
she appeared in during the past four seasons, between
battling knee and foot injuries. This year, she sat
out the nonconference games with a stress fracture in
her left foot, but began knocking down three-pointers
at the start of the Pac-10 season.
Suminski, meanwhile, has been flashing the same huge
grin that followed her game-winning shot against Vanderbilt
in last year’s NCAA Sweet Sixteen. She says freshmen
Candice Wiggins, Cissy Pierce, Christy Titchenal and
Jessica Elway contribute athleticism and quickness.
“We’re pressing more this year than we have
in the past three years, and it’s been fun to
get turnovers,” the four-year starter says.
Due to Borchardt’s injury, Wiggins made her college
debut as a starter. Her impact was immediate: she leads
the team with 16.7 points per game. “Candice is
a tremendous player and we’re very excited that
she’s playing with us and not against us,”
says Suminski.
The 5-foot-11 Wiggins captained the USA Junior National
Team that brought home gold last summer and is redshirting
as a varsity volleyball player this year. “I didn’t
have any idea how much playing time I’d get—this
is really awesome,” she says. “And I think
the reason why our team is so great is because there’s
authentic chemistry and genuine camaraderie—it’s
not fake.”
The fourth-ranked Cardinal (19-2, 10-1 Pac-10) won eight
straight games to start the season, beating three schools
by margins of more than 35 points to make it the best
opener since 2001-02. Suminski was on that squad as
a freshman, and she says team expectations are at least
as high this year. “We used to not really think
about an NCAA national championship, but this year we’re
talking about it,” says Suminski, who usually
gives the pregame pep talk for guards. “We’re
a confident team, and we do have high hopes of going
to the Final Four. We really, really want it.”
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BATTLE-TESTED: Borchardt has
been with the Cardinal since 2000.
Gonzalesphoto.com |
Borchardt chose to return for a final season in spite
of the separation it means for her and husband Curtis,
’03, a former Stanford star who now plays for
the Utah Jazz. “It’s hard not to be with
him, but this is the one and only opportunity I’m
going to have [to win a national championship],”
she says. “I’ve dreamed of playing Stanford
basketball since I first started getting recruited,
and I didn’t want to look back and say, ‘I
wish I would have.’ Especially not with the group
of girls we have this year.”
The Borchardts spent the summer working out together
at the Jazz facility in Utah, and Susan says both of
them are playing at a higher level as a result. “You
might laugh, but we played a lot of one-on-one, and
I think his foot quickness improved.”
This season, Suminski became the 25th player in Stanford
history to score 1,000 points. She was named a preseason
candidate for the Wooden and Naismith awards, both of
which recognize the top female basketball player in
the nation, and for the Senior CLASS (Celebrating Loyalty
and Achievement for Staying in School) Award. Wiggins
may well follow in her footsteps. “There aren’t
many things I can help her with on skills because she’s
probably surpassing me in that area,” Suminski
says. “But when she has a question about running
offense and other things the coaches have been telling
me for three years, hopefully I’m there for her.”
For Wiggins, who saw her first game at Maples when she
was a freshman in high school, it’s “crazy”
to be on the court with Suminski and Borchardt. “Kelley’s
game is so solid, and everything she does is with a
purpose,” she says. “And Susan is just an
amazing natural leader who has such a positive attitude.
We have such an awesome backcourt with the seniors.”
“I love the company of these guards,” head
coach Tara VanDerveer said as she sat with Suminski,
Borchardt and Wiggins at a postgame press conference
on January 20, after the three combined for 54 points
in Stanford’s 100-75 rout of UCLA. “They
organize the floor, they are incredibly unselfish and
they knock down shots.”
The win was the first 100-point game for the Cardinal
since 2002. “It’s orchestrated right here,
with these three,” VanDerveer said. “These
are the people who really run things.”
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