DURANGO, Colo. – Fort Lewis College women's basketball fans can expect to see familiar faces contributing big minutes for the Skyhawks, along with the energy and poise of a large group of newcomers that are eager to make their marks on FLC women's basketball.

"Our team is going to be fun to watch, and overall is a great group of women. We have so many amazing personalities and senses of humor and have a lot of fun," said head coach Taylor Harris. "On the court, we will play hard, defend, and share the basketball.  We hope to play a style of basketball that will be hard to beat.  There's a lot of energy from our team, and we're excited to put on a great show for the fans."
 
The Schedule
FLC opens the season on November 12-13 when the team travels to compete in the Conference Challenge Event in Silver City, New Mexico. The Skyhawks will take on a pair of Lone Star Conference opponents in Eastern New Mexico University and the host school of Western New Mexico University.

The team will return to the Whalen Gymnasium for the home opener versus Northern New Mexico College on November 21. The game will be recognized as the school's Nike N7 game. Since 2009, the Nike N7 Fund has awarded more than $7.5 million in grants to 259 Native American and Aboriginal communities and organizations. Fort Lewis is one of only 15 institutions nationwide selected to participate in the Nike N7 Games, celebrating Native American Heritage Month.

Following the home game, the Skyhawks will be back on the road for two games on the campus of West Texas A&M University for the Pak-A-Sak Thanksgiving Classic from November 26-27. FLC will face off against West Texas A&M in game one, followed by a Saturday game against Southwestern Oklahoma State University to wrap up the non-conference slate.

From there, the Skyhawks will compete in 22 Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference games, 11 of which will take place inside of Whalen Gymnasium. The RMAC Tournament will take place March 1-5 with the NCAA Division II Championships slated to begin on March 11.

RMAC Preseason Ranking
The Fort Lewis College women's basketball team was selected to finish 11th in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference (RMAC) according to the Coaches' Preseason Poll. Fort Lewis received 66 votes, coming in a three-way tie with Adams State and University of Colorado Colorado Springs. Colorado School of Mines comes in as the preseason favorite with 190 points and 11 first-place votes. Colorado Mesa and MSU Denver round out the top-three spots with Colorado Mesa receiving a pair of first-place votes.

Looking Back
The Skyhawks are coming off a 6-9 overall mark from the 2020-21 season which saw teams across the country facing adversity with postponements and cancellations due to the COVID-19 Pandemic. Fort Lewis played a conference-only schedule and finished the year on a two-game win streak. The team's record resulted in a 10^th place finish in the league. The team played in a handful of tight contests, coming away with a 5-2 record in games decided by five points or less.

Coach Harris Takes the Reigns
Harris comes to Durango from Miles Community College, where he has guided the 2020-21 Pioneers to a Region XIII Championship, a 24-2 overall record, and a Sweet 16 appearance at the NJCAA Division I National Championship Tournament. Harris has extensive Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference (RMAC) ties from his time as a women's basketball assistant coach at Regis University (2015-19) and a men's assistant coach at Metropolitan State University of Denver (2009-2015).
 
During his time at Miles Community College, Harris has led the Pioneers to an overall record of 43-15 (.741) and a 30-5 mark (.857) in the Mon-Dak Athletic Conference. His program has also ranked No. 2 among NJCAA teams in GPA for the 2019-20 academic year (3.771) while being active in the community, accumulating 365 total hours of community service since September of 2019.

The Returners
Fort Lewis has five players returning to the hardwood from last year's in Iva Drobnjak, Alyssa Adams, Ava Strange, Sydney Candelaria, and Brooke McGee. The group totaled 224 points last season with Candelaria's 91 leading the way. Adam's ranked third on the team with 55 total rebounds (3.9 per game).

"We have a lot of RMAC experience with Sydney Candelaria and Alyssa Adams.  They've done such a great job of being leaders of our group," said Harris.

Candelaria's career has featured 680 points, 145 assists, and 277 rebounds while averaging 22.9 minutes per game in 90 games played. Adams has played in 42 total games, averaging 15 minutes per game. She's totaled 92 rebounds and 167 points in her Skyhawk career.

McGee played in 11 games last season after transferring in from Western Texas College. The forward averaged 2.­­4 rebounds per game while playing 12.7 minutes per outing. Drobnjak played in 14 games, starting in seven, for FLC last season. The guard totaled 14 rebounds and 22 points in her freshman season. Strange saw time in 13 games last season, totaling 11 rebounds in her first season in blue and gold.

The Newcomers
The team has 11 new faces joining the team this season, bringing the roster total to 16 student-athletes. Ember Cervantes, Kelsey Sorenson, Tayla Nez, Claudia Vidal, Jana Conejero, and Destiny Kessay come to the Skyhawks as transfers with valuable next-level experience. True freshmen Grace Ellis, Sahra Genc, Charlize Valdez, Samantha Wattawa, and Piper Terry round out the group those who are new to the nest.

"I am excited for this group of eleven young women to join our program here at Fort Lewis College," commented coach Harris.  "We have a mix of transfers, junior college athletes, international students, and freshmen that will all compete every day to make our practices great. This class represents six different states, three different countries, and each one of these women embodies what it means to be a student-athlete, with each one of them having above a 3.5 GPA from their previous school."

Final Comments from Coach Harris
"Our expectations are simply to just keep growing closer together as a team each day.  We are a team that wants to not only play our best basketball in February and March but be a closer and more confident team later in the season as well. The players definitely have expectations to be better versions of themselves on the court as the season progresses.  Confidence is a big thing that we focus on growing, and with all the hard work they're putting in, they should expect their skill-set and confidence to grow as the year goes on."