Sioux City, Iowa – Sierra Mitchell of Morningside College has been selected as the Hauff Mid-America Sports/Great Plains Athletic Conference (GPAC) Women’s Basketball Player-of-the-Year and headlines the GPAC Basketball All-Conference Teams for 2020-21. Mitchell, a senior, averaged 18.2 points per game and 3.1 assists and 2.5 steals. She shot 45.4 percent from the field and 92.2 percent from the line for Morningside who was 25-2 overall and 20-2 in conference play.
Other GPAC basketball honorees for 2020-21 include: Tri-Defensive Players-of-the-Year Noelle Josephson of Jamestown, Kennedy Benne or Briar Cliff and Faith Meyer of Morningside; Freshman-of-the-Year Haidyn Pitsch of Dakota Wesleyan; and the Hauff Mid-America Sports/GPAC Coach-of-the-Year Jamie Sale from Morningside. The All-GPAC Basketball Teams and honors are selected by the league’s 12 head coaches.
Named to the first team from Northwestern was Sammy Blum and Molly Schany. Ashtyn Verbeek earned first team honors for Dordt University.
Veerbeek averaged 15.4 points per game and 10.8 rebounds per game in her first season with the Defenders. She converted 45 percent of her field goal attempts and had a team high 38 made three-point baskets while averaging 2.5 assists and 2.3 blocked shots per game with one steal per outing. Veerbeek recorded a GPAC best 14 double-doubles this season and led the league in rebounding and ranked third in scoring.
Second team honors went to Dordt’s Erika Feenstra and Karly Gustafson. Morningside’s Taylor Rodenburgh and Briar Cliff’s Payton Slaughter both earned a spot on the second team.
Feenstra averaged 12.5 points per game for the Defenders with 4.9 rebounds and leaves Dordt as the career scoring leader with 1,867 career points and 702 rebounds. Feenstra converted 49 percent of her field goals this season and ends her career having earned all-GPAC honors in all four of her seasons.
Gustafson scored 11.2 points per game and took in 6.6 rebounds while converting 51 percent of her field goals. She was an all-GPAC honorable mention selection as a freshman.
Slaughter, a sophomore from Cherokee, Iowa, led the Chargers in assists (102) and made 3-pointers (38). Her 102 assists rank second in the GPAC and 16th in the NAIA. She was third on the team with 5.8 rebounds per game. She recorded the only triple double in the GPAC this season with her 12 points, 13 rebounds, and 11 assist game against Jamestown.
Dordt’s Bailey Beckman, and Northwestern’s Devyn Kemble and Taylor VanderVelde earned honorable mention accolades.
Beckman was averaging 12.8 points per game when she suffered a season ending injury in the 16th game of the season. Beckman averaged 2.3 assists per game and 1.3 steals while converting 28 three-point baskets in 16 games played.
