No seniors, no returning starters and no home crowd.
No matter for the Whitman women’s basketball team.
On Friday, Feb. 27 and Saturday, Feb. 28, the Blues defeated University of Puget Sound (UPS) and George Fox University, respectively, to repeat as Northwest Conference champions, clinch their fourth NWC title in five years and punch their ticket to the NCAA DIII women’s basketball tournament.
There was little reason entering the 2026 season to doubt that the Blues would be competitive, given their status as perennial NWC contenders at the helm of the winningest women’s basketball coach in NWC history in Head Coach Michelle Ferenz. Still, especially without the senior starting lineup that led Whitman to the second round of the 2025 NCAA DIII tournament and graduating arguably the best player in school history, career points and rebounds record holder Korin Baker ’25, few would have expected the team to achieve this level of success—Coach Ferenz included.
“Going into the season, I knew we were not going to be the dominant team we were the previous season, but I believed we could compete for a playoff spot,” Head Coach Michelle Ferenz said in an email to The Wire. “It was going to take time to find our way and figure out how we could be successful. It took us a little while and some struggles along the way, but we are playing our best basketball right now.”
The Blues needed every bit of it down the stretch on playoff weekend, grinding out two hard-fought games on consecutive days. Their semifinal matchup against UPS, a 69-56 victory, came on the heels of a one-point loss to the Loggers just one week prior.
“Our losses to UPS and Linfield [the No. 1 seed in the NWC entering the playoffs] were closely contested games,” Ferenz said. “We knew we could defend those teams and keep the games close, so we needed to focus on how to attack them offensively and also be better on the boards (rebounds)… As coaches, we had scripted our offense for UPS to attack what we felt they did not defend well or where we had a match advantage. And, for the most part, we executed that game plan.”
They did so on the backs of their forwards, who punished UPS in the paint. Junior Bri Andrade Lopez scored a career-high 23 points on 7-for-11 shooting and a perfect 8-8 night at the line. Sophomore Emma Lena Baker also came up big with a 21-point, 11-rebound double-double reminiscent of the performances her sister, Korin Baker turned in during her Whitman career.
Thanks to its offensive improvement from the previous contest against UPS, Whitman jumped out to a 9-0 lead to open the game and never trailed, answering every Logger scoring threat with scores of its own. The Blues’ defense held fast throughout the game as well, limiting the Loggers to under 15 points in three out of four quarters and allowing just 32.8% shooting from the field.
“Coming into the semifinal against UPS, we knew that it was going to be a physically tough game,” Baker said in an email to The Wire. “We were motivated to push the pace, attack what the defense gave us and get on the rebounds.”
Junior guard Avery Neal added that stout defensive play translated into offensive opportunities for the Blues.
“We found success in playing team defense, disrupting the other team’s offensive rhythm,” Neal said. “Offensively, we wanted to attack the basket aggressively and with confidence. We let our defensive energy fuel our offense.”
Whitman didn’t get much time to celebrate its revenge against UPS; up next was No. 4 George Fox, which upset Linfield and was hungry for some revenge of its own against Whitman for its loss in the 2025 NWC title game. The Blues, however, were prepared to take on whichever team came their way.
“We… were the only team in the NWC to have beaten everyone at least once [during the 2026 season],” Ferenz said. “When George Fox upset Linfield in the other semifinal, we were able to go through an offensive script that morning that we felt gave us good looks. However, it comes down to finishing at both ends and controlling the boards, and we did that.”
The Blues out-rebounded the Bruins 37 to 25, with Andrade Lopez and Baker accounting for nearly half the count. Whitman’s presence on the boards was enough to overcome a slow, eight-point first quarter start, and Baker paced the Blues with 21 points on their way to comfortably outpacing the Bruins 67-51.
Though Whitman already had plenty to celebrate with the win, the fact that it marked their first NWC title on the road since 2017 added additional meaning.
“We knew they would bring the heat and the fans; it was important for us to make runs when necessary and to sit down and defend,” Baker said. “We value defense extremely, and we showed that.”
Led by first-year guard Morgan Montgomery with three steals, the Blues scored 21 points off 19 total Bruins turnovers to silence George Fox’s supporters. Whitman’s men’s basketball team and women’s tennis team provided an additional spark of energy for the Blues in the stands as well.
“George Fox had a much bigger student section,” Ferenz said, “but we had just as much energy.”
Key three pointers by Andrade Lopez and junior guard Kaella Peters kept the Bruins at bay in the fourth quarter and sustained Whitman through to the final buzzer.
“These moments were so electric and were what lit the fire in us to finish the game strong and cut down those nets,” Baker said.
Cut down the nets they did, in what was a defiant and unbridled display of pride in the team’s accomplishment—the same outcome as the year before, but this time as underdogs flying under the radar.
“The culture of how we practice and compete has not changed,” Ferenz said, “but it did take time for this team to embrace that mindset for themselves and figure out how they needed to play. I am really proud of them.”
For Neal and Baker, Whitman’s title is payoff for the growing pains of team development that accompany roster turnover.
“We are a new group that has spent this season learning and growing and figuring things out along the way,” Neal said. “These games reminded us of what we’re capable of when we believe in ourselves and commit to playing for one another.”
“This means everything to us,” Baker said. “Our team has grown in more ways than I could have imagined this season. Just being in this moment feels surreal.”
On Friday, March 6 in Abilene, Texas against the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Athenas (20-7), the young but scrappy Blues (20-7) will attempt to stretch the moment out a little longer.
