Local women’s hoops players finding home, close by

Published 11:28 pm Monday, December 14, 2009

SEATTLE — As an elite NCAA Division II women’s basketball program, Seattle Pacific University attracts players from several states and occasionally even from overseas.

But this year, as usual, SPU’s squad is mostly from the Puget Sound area, including three top players from Snohomish County. Daesha Henderson and Sydney Benson, who played at Snohomish High School, and Caitlyn Rohrbach of Edmonds, a Meadowdale graduate, are all filling key roles for the Falcons, who are 5-1 in the new season.

Building with a foundation of local players is a logical strategy, according to fifth-year SPU head coach Julie van Beek.

“We want to recruit girls from winning programs, and obviously there are some very, very strong programs around here like Snohomish and Meadowdale,” van Beek said. “When kids come from winning programs, they’ve been well-coached and they know how to win. They expect to win. And we just think that’s a huge thing.”

Because SPU is a small, private Christian university, the school “might not be for everyone,” van Beek added. “But part of being recruited is knowing where you can fit and where you can thrive as a person, a student and an athlete.

“We think there are a lot of positives for why we have so many local kids. They’re going to be at a really good school, they’ll play in a really strong basketball program, and they’ll be close to home.”

Henderson, Benson and Rohrbach all took different paths to SPU. The 21-year-old Henderson, a senior, arrived after graduating from Snohomish in 2006. Benson, 22, graduated from Snohomish in 2005 and played three seasons at Eastern Washington before transferring to SPU, where she is a fifth-year senior. Rohrbach, 22, graduated from Meadowdale in 2006 and played one season at Alaska-Fairbanks before transferring to SPU, where she is a fourth-year junior.

Henderson is a starting guard and “was probably the best player in our region last year,” van Beek said. Benson and Rohrbach are both reserve forwards, “but to me they’re starters. They’re bringing something off the bench to help us and they’re going to play almost as many minutes as our starters.”

Another Snohomish County product is freshman Katie Benson, Sydney’s younger sister and a top recruit who is sitting out the season after a knee injury in an early practice.

And a fifth player also has Snohomish County ties. Megan Hoisington of Bremerton is the daughter of Greg Hoisington, a standout player at Meadowdale in the late 1970s who went on to play at SPU.

In van Beek’s four previous seasons, the Falcons compiled a 96-21 record for a terrific .821 winning percentage that is tops among all basketball coaches, men and women, in school history.

SPU has advanced to the postseason every season under van Beek and has reached the NCAA Sweet 16 three times, including the past two. Alas, those two seasons ended with losses to Great Northwest Athletic Conference rival Alaska-Anchorage, with both defeats coming in SPU’s gym.

And that means the Falcons — and particularly upperclassmen like Henderson, Benson and Rohrbach — have some unfinished business this season.

“We want to make it to the Elite Eight,” Henderson said, “but there are things we have to take care of before that. We have to play well through conference, do well in preseason and regional rankings, and then hopefully win a conference title. That’s a long ways off, but the long-range goal is definitely to get to the Elite Eight.”

“I’m just really excited, not only for our potential, but for where we are right now,” added Benson, who is majoring in French with a Russian minor. “Things are coming together already. … I know we’ll go far, and I’m excited to see how far we go.”

Regardless of how the season unfolds, all three players say they have cherished their time at SPU.

“It’s been an amazing experience,” said Rohrbach, a psychology major. “For me, it was one of the best decisions to transfer here. … Just being able to play at a Christian university where I can excel in my faith, in my academics and on the basketball court, and with everything integrated into all those areas, I think that’s an amazing thing to experience in college.”

“The moment I came to SPU, I knew this was where I wanted to play,” said Henderson, a pre-med major who was also recruited by several Division I schools. “The people were amazing and the team was so genuine. … I couldn’t be happier where I am.”

Her four years have “flown by,” she said, “and I’ve loved every minute of it. It’s been unbelievable experience.”