LAGUNA NIGUEL, Calif. (Feb. 26, 2025) – Head Coach
Kristen Dowling of the Whittier College women's basketball team has been recognized as the head of the 2024-25 SCIAC Coaching Staff of the Year in 2024-25.
During her seven years at Claremont-Mudd-Scripps, Dowling's staff was once named staff of the year in 2014-15 -- the year the Athenas made it a perfect 16-0 in conference play. This year's Poets squad, under the tutelage of Dowling and assistants
Keyla Morgan and
Lizzie Scriven '23, finished 14-2 in SCIAC play, and that number is all the more significant when considering the road taken to arrive here.
Dowling became the Poets' coach on Oct. 18, 2024 -- less than three weeks before the start of the 2024-25 regular season. With limited time to work with her athletes and limited knowledge of the Poets' squad coming in, Dowling and her staff were able to develop the proper role players behind First Team All-SCIAC talents
Rhe Nae Leach (Moreno Valley, Calif. / John W. North) and
Lorita Salloom (Santa Clarita, Calif. / Saugus / College of the Canyons) and steer the Poets to 20 regular season wins for just the third time in program history, and a first-place seeding in the upcoming SCIAC Postseason Tournament.
Dowling and the Poets will be back in action on Feb. 27 when they host Pomona-Pitzer Colleges in the semifinals of the SCIAC Postseason Tournament. The fourth-seeded Sagehens defeated the fifth-seeded University of Redlands in the opening round matchup on Tuesday night.
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