BELLINGHAM, Wash. – The Western Washington University women's basketball team heads on the road for a pair of key Great Northwest Athletic Conference games with the postseason looming.

 

The No. 6/8 nationally-ranked Vikings lead the Great Northwest Athletic Conference with a 14-1 overall record and 6-1 mark in conference play. Not only are the Vikings on top of the GNAC table, Western paces the conference in the new Points Rating System with a 4.00 rating.

 

The Vikings take their perfect 10-0 road into the week facing two of the top five teams in the conference with trips to play at Northwest Nazarene (12-6, 6-4 GNAC) on Thursday and Central Washington (15-5, 8-3 GNAC) on Saturday. 

 

Having played the fewest conference games to date due to various postponements, WWU will have a frantic finish with eight games over a 16-day span concluding the regular-season February 26 game at Simon Fraser. The GNAC Championships will include all 10 teams this season and be held in conjunction with the men's tournament March 2-5 in Seattle and Lacey.

 

The Vikings were last in action on February 3 earning a 59-40 home victory over Seattle Pacific, limiting the Falcons to a .283 field goal percentage and the second-fewest points by a team in a GNAC game this season.

 

Senior guard Emma Duff continues to pace the Vikings putting up All-America-worthy numbers averaging 15.9 points, 7.4 rebounds, 1.6 steals and 1.1 blocks per game. Duff has scored in double-digits in 13 of 15 games and is averaging 19.8 points per game over her last five games. 

 

The Vikings balanced team offense also features junior guard Mollie Olson averaging 9.5 points and 3.55 assists per game and sophomore post Carley Zaragoza is contributing 7.6 points per game as a reserve and is shooting a team-best .595 (50-for-84) from the field.

 

WWU's defense remains among the nation's elite with league-leading marks holding opponents to 52.3 points per game (5th in NCAA II) and a .327 field goal percentage (4th in NCAA II).

 

Following the road trip to Idaho and Ellensburg, the Vikings turn right around and play at Seattle Pacific on Tuesday in a makeup game from the January 8 postponed game. Beginning with the February 15 game at SPU, Western will play five games in an eight-day stretch, with four consecutive home games.

 

 

The Vikings close out a string of three consecutive road games next Tuesday (Feb. 15) with a makeup game at Seattle Pacific with tip-off against the Falcons at 4 pm inside Brougham Pavilion. WWU will then host four consecutive road games against Alaska Fairbanks (Thursday, Feb. 17, 7 pm), Alaska Anchorage (Saturday, Feb. 19, 7 pm), Northwest Nazarene (Monday, Feb. 21, 3 pm) and Saint Martin's (Tuesday, Feb. 22, 7 pm). The complete 2021-22 schedule can be viewed online at wwuvikings.com/21-22_WBB.

 

The Vikings are a perfect 10-0 on the road this season, going 8-0 in true away games and 2-0 in neutral-site contests. WWU has picked up key road wins over West Region ranked teams Azusa Pacific and Cal State San Marcos. WWU has made road trips to Colorado, Southern California, Northern California and a neutral-site game in Seattle, in addition to going 3-1 inside Carver Gym.

 

Senior guard Dani Iwami suffered what could be a season and career-ending knee injury 20 seconds into the January 13 game vs. Central Washington. Iwami was averaging 9.1 points and 2.8 assists per game this season prior to the injury, and has appeared in 67 games during her WWU career. She is one of the top 3-point shooter in WWU history with 112 made 3-pointers.

 

Here are some facts on the Vikings impressive 14-1 start to the season:

 

• Ranked No. 1 in the West Region in the D2SIDA Media Poll (4 of 6 first-place votes).
• Holds No. 8 (WBCA/Coaches) and No. 6 (D2SIDA/Media) national rankings…ranked in the top 15 in all 11 regular-season polls and spent eight weeks in the national top 10.
• Opened the season with 10 consecutive wins and was one of four remaining undefeated teams prior to first loss.
• Out-scoring opponents by 18.0 points per game to rank 12th in NCAA Division II.
• Holds rebound advantage of 9.5, the 12th-best margin in NCAA Division II.
• Holding opponents to 52.3 points per game, the 5th-best mark in NCAA Division II.
• Team field goal percentage of .463 ranks 12th in NCAA Division II.
• 10 of 14 wins have been on the road (8-0 away, 2-0 neutral).
• Ranks No. 2 in the nation limiting opponents to a .210 3-point field goal percentage.

 

The Vikings lead the GNAC in nearly every team defensive category, including holding opponents to 52.3 points per game for the 5th-best mark in NCAA Division II. WWU also leads the league in opponent field goal percentage (.327), rebounding margin (+9.5) and by limiting opponents to a .210 3-point field goal percentage. Western's defensive effort has limited opponents to 60-or-fewer points in 12 of 15 games.

 

Led by four-time selection Dani Iwami the Vikings set a program record with eight selections to the Great Northwest Athletic Conference All-Academic Team. While a top-10 team on the court with an overall 14-1 record, the Vikings showed to be equally impressive in the classroom with the record-setting amount of award winners on the conference All-Academic squad presented by Barnes & Noble College. WWU surpassed the six awards from last season to set the program record, with the previous high being five honorees from 2016-17. Western was tied for 2nd in the GNAC with the eight selections, trailing 10 by Seattle Pacific and matching eight by Montana State Billings.

 

 

Here is a look at the series history between WWU and its opponents this week:

 

• Northwest Nazarene: Playing NNU for the first time since going 2-1 against the Nighthawks during the 2019-20 season…January 15 game was postponed until February 21 due to health and safety protocols in the NNU program…defeated NNU 66-62 in the 2020 GNAC Championships Semifinal in the last meeting between the two schools on March 6, 2020…WWU is 32-15 all-time vs. NNU with a 12-8 record vs. the Nighthawks in road games.
• Central Washington: Only defeat this season was a 76-68 loss to CWU on January 13 in Carver Gym…WWU went 2-0 vs. CWU during the abbreviated 2021 spring season, recording a 81-61 road victory in Ellensburg and 66-54 home victory…the WWU record book shows the Vikings leading the all-time series 97-16 with an 8-6 advantage in the last 14 meetings dating back to the 2015-16 season…WWU has dropped three of last four games played in Ellensburg.

 

The Vikings maintained moved up in each of the national polls this week, going from No. 10 to No. 6 in the D2SIDA media poll and from No. 9 to No. 8 in the WBCA Coaches Poll. WWU has spent eight of the last nine weeks in the national top-10including reaching as high as No. 5 (WBCA) and tied for No. 2 (D2SIDA). The No. 2 national ranking was the highest WWU has been ranked in any of the national polls and the No. 5 coaches poll mark was the highest since being a consistent top-10 team in 2012-13, a season that finished with a No. 3 national ranking.

  

There have been a few schedule changes for the Vikings in upcoming games. Be sure to bookmark the 2021-22 season schedule for up-to-date tip-off times and schedule changes on wwuvikings.com/21-22_WBB:

 

• The Jan. 1 postponed game vs. Saint Martin's has been rescheduled for Feb. 22 (7 pm) in Bellingham.
• The Jan. 8 postponed game at Seattle Pacific has been rescheduled for Feb. 15 (4 pm) in Seattle.
• The Jan. 15 postponed game vs. Northwest Nazarene has been rescheduled for Feb. 21 in Bellingham.
• The Feb. 5 game vs. Montana State Billings has been postponed (no makeup date).

 

Senior Emma Duff is leading the Vikings averaging 15.9 and 7.4 rebounds per game, with both ranked No. 5 in the GNAC heading into this weekend's games. Over the last five games Duff is averaging 19.8 points and 7.2 rebounds per game. She became the 28th player in WWU history to pass the 1,000 career point milestone on December 30 vs. Western Oregon. Duff now has 1,101 points in 110 games (84 starts) for an average of 10.0 points per game. She is the first player to join the exclusive club since the 2016-17 season when Taylor Peacocke, Kiana Gandy, Tia Briggs topped the 1,000-point mark for a career, and now just 16 points shy of breaking into the all-time top 20 in WWU history. 

 

Here is a look at where WWU is listed in the official NCAA statistics rankings (through games of 2/8/22):

 

 

Here is a look at the results for the Vikings in the first 15 games of the 2021-22 season (14-1, 6-1 GNAC):

 

 

While the regular-season conference champion and seeing for the GNAC tournament will be decided on a new points system, here is an updated look at the league standings heading into games this weekend. View the conference schedule, scores, stats and updated standings at GNACSports.com.

 

 

The GNAC announced a change to the format and qualifying criteria for its 2022 men's and women's basketball championships. The conference's Management Council and CEO Board unanimously voted to expand this year's tournament to all 10 men's and women's programs. The GNAC Championships will now run from March 2 to 5. To accommodate full fields in both genders, the first two rounds of games will be split between Saint Martin's University in Lacey, Washington, and Seattle Pacific University. In total, six games – two play-in contests and four quarterfinals matchups – will be contested at SPU's Royal Brougham Pavilion. The other 12 games, including the semifinals and championship games in both genders, will be played at Marcus Pavilion on the campus of Saint Martin's, which was awarded tournament-hosting rights two years ago. For each gender, the No. 7 through No. 10 seeds will compete in play-in games on Wednesday, March 2. The winners will advance to an eight-team bracket, which will begin play on Thursday, March 3.

The points rating system is an end-of-season calculation that attaches numeric values to each result based on whether the game was at home or on the road and where each opponent's final conference winning percentage fell (i.e., .750 and above, .500 to .749, .250 to .499 and .249 and below). The better an opponent's final winning percentage, the greater the point values for a win or a loss. It is similar to one of the key metrics used by Division II in ranking teams under consideration for NCAA postseason at-large berths in multiple sports, including men's and women's basketball.

 

Senior guards Emma Duff and Dani Iwami rank in the top 15 in WWU program history for career 3-pointers made. Here is a list of the all-time leader since the rule was adopted in 1987-88:

 

 

The Vikings had its perfect start to the season come to an end January 13 vs. Central Washington after opening the 2021-22 campaign with 10 consecutive victories. The 10-0 start goes into the record books as tied for the 3rd-best in program history and the 16-game winning streak (dating back to spring 2021) is 5th-best in WWU history.

 

 

The Vikings have been voted No. 2 in the GNAC Preseason Coaches Poll, earning 89 total points to narrowly trail the 92 points obtained by preseason favorite Alaska Anchorage. UAA received seven of the 10 first-place votes, followed by two for WWU and one for Northwest Nazarene, who was picked to finish third with 70 poll points

 

Head coach Carmen Dolfo is in her 31st season leading the program, owning an all-time record of 632-246 (.720) to rank amongst the active and career leaders at the NCAA Division II level for career wins and winning percentage. Dolfo has led the Vikings to 17 trips to the NCAA Championships and a pair of Elite 8 appearances. She became the winningest coach in WWU Athletics history when she collected victory No. 519 on Dec. 3, 2015 vs. Alaska to pass former men's basketball coach Brad Jackson (518-279). Dolfo tallied her 600th career victory on January 11, 2020 vs. Seattle Pacific, in her 840th career game. Dolfo became the 36th active NCAA women's head coach across all divisions to join the 600-win club and is one of 73 women's coaches all-time in NCAA history to reach the milestone. WWU has recorded 21 seasons with 20-or-more wins under Dolfo.

 

The 2021-22 coaching staff includes 10th-year assistant head coach Stacey Turrell, along with graduate assistant Bobbi Westendorf, volunteer assistant Annalisa Fish and student assistant George Irwin.

 

Two WWU women's basketball coaches have more than 400 career victories, with current head coach Carmen Dolfo amassing 632 wins and Hall of Fame coach Lynda Goodrich totaling 411 wins leading the Vikings for 19 seasons from 1971-1990. The program owns an all-time record of 1064-380 for a career winning percentage of .736.

 

One of the premier basketball programs in NCAA Division II, recording a 20-win season in eight of the last 12 full seasons, and 35 times in the 50-year history of the program. WWU has 21 seasons of 20 or more wins under head coach Carmen Dolfo, who is the winningest coach of any sport at WWU and ranks among Division II active and all-time coaching leaders in wins with 632, winning percentage and 20-win seasons. The Vikings have reached the NCAA II Tournament in 16 of 21 seasons at the Division II level with two trips to the Final Four. The program has 1,064 all-time wins in the 50-year history of the program, and according to available records, is one of less than 20 women's college basketball team across all divisions and levels to reach the 1,000-victory milestone.