Lady Frogs honor team award winners at Colonial
4/20/2008 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
April 20, 2008
FORT WORTH--The TCU women's basketball team honored its 2007-08 season award winners Sunday evening at Colonial Country Club during its annual award banquet.
Much of the celebration centered around a five-player Lady Frog senior class which finished its college tenure with 111 victories, which marked the second-most in program history over a five-year stretch. Lorie Butler-Rayford, Moneka Knight, Jenna Lohse, Helen Roden and Adrianne Ross helped push TCU into postseason play each of the last five seasons, including four NCAA Tournament berths.
Ross capped her Lady Frog career by being named the team's Most Valuable Player for the second straight season. The 5-8 guard, who became TCU's No. 2 all-time leading scorer midway through the season, topped this season's team in both scoring and steals. She led the Frogs in points in 22 of 35 games and reached at least 20 points seven times. Ross also earned a spot on the All-Mountain West Conference team for the third straight season.
Ross was unable to attend the banquet, as she was joined by Director of Operations Sandora Irvin for the start of training camp for the WNBA's San Antonio Silver Stars.
Offensive and Defensive MVP honors were awarded to Butler-Rayford and Knight, respectively.
Butler-Rayford finished second on the squad in points while pulling down a team-best 7.6 rebounds per game. A native of Inglewood, Calif., Butler-Rayford totaled five double-doubles on the season and set individual career bests in points, rebounds, steals, games played and starts.
Knight proved to be one of the driving forces behind a defensive-minded TCU squad that allowed only 60.1 points per game--the second-lowest average in program history. She ranked second on the team in steals and often times drew defensive responsibilities for the opposing team's quickest player. Like Butler-Rayford, Knight also set several single-season-best totals, including points, rebounds, assists and steals, as well as field-goal and free-throw percentage.
As to be expected, Helena Sverrisdottir was named Freshman of the Year after earlier taking home MWC freshman honors. Sverrisdottir, only the fourth true freshman to start a season opener under Head Coach Jeff Mittie, finished the season as the Lady Frogs' highest-scoring freshman since Sandora Irvin in 2001-02.
Lohse took home the annual Janice Dziuk Award for the second time in her career. The honor, named for the third-leading scorer and rebounder in TCU history, recognizes a player each year who provides leadership and exudes great effort both on and off the basketball floor.
In addition to being honored for their athletic accomplishments, three Frogs also were lauded for their academic achievements during the season. Lohse, Roden and Emily Carter each posted grade-point averages of at a 3.0 mark during the 2007-08 academic year to earn the team's top academic honor.
