The Wolfpack women’s basketball team continues to impress.
Trenese Smith, management sophomore, and Sugar Bowl Female Amateur Athlete of the Year, racked up multiple Player of the Week awards from the Gulf Coast Athletic Conference and the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics – a first for Loyola.
Along with her twin, Trenell Smith, management sophomore and guard/forward for the team, she was named to the All-Louisiana team by the Louisiana Sports Writers Association and are NAIA All-Americans this season. The twins will be back to play for the team for their junior year.
Kiely Schork, senior guard, took home the Hustle Award at the NAIA Division I Women’s Basketball National Championship Tournament.
“I wanted to enjoy my senior year of play and have fun out there,” Schork said.
She continued, “The loss to Xavier in the conference title game was tough, but making it to the Elite Eight in our National Tournament made up for it.”
Schork is graduating with a bachelors degree in mass communication with a concentration in advertising and a minor in visual arts.
“I’m going to stay in New Orleans for about another year. I am taking an internship at a New Orleans advertising firm,” she said.
She is going home to Burlingame, California, for a quick visit but has to be back to coach the Domino’s Pizza American Athletic Union, a summer league for high school adolescents 16 years old and under.
The women are losing three more seniors this year. Kim Rigg, forward, Rachel Kovach, guard and Adama Mballow, center. Rigg is graduating with a bachelors degree in psychology. Kovach’s degree is in history and Mballow will be earning a degree in sociology.
Christine Mainguy is a guard/forward and will return for her senior year.
“It was a successful season and I want to be more productive next season,” she said.
“We’re losing a lot of teammates this year. Next season, new recruits will have an impact,” Mainguy said. “My role will change. I’ll have to score more,” she added.
She scored an average of just under nine points a game this year.
“I’ll workout this summer to the plan Coach gave me,” she said.
“We’re all great teammates. I’ll miss them on the court but they’ll still be around. They’re living in town,” she said with a smile.
Don Weaver can be reached at [email protected].
