Young and talented, women's b-ball gets noticed
By Ryan Rogers
Sports Editor
March 12, 2008
 The Ontario University Athletics (OUA) honoured the Lancers women’s basketball team last week for their strong team performance in the 2007-08 regular season. Topping the list of notable awards was Iva Peklova, an environmental science major, who won the OUA West’s Rookie of the Year award.
In Peklova’s first season in the OUA, the international recruit from Prague, Czech Republic, averaged 10.2 points per game and rebounded at a rate of 9.7 per game, which ranked her third in the country and second in the province.
In the OUA, the six-foot-four Peklova was second in total rebounds, third in defensive rebounds and nationally, no other woman in Canada had more offensive rebounds (85) than her.
That combination of rebounding and scoring led Peklova to seven double-doubles throughout the season.
Second-year sniper Dranadia Roc, a communications studies student from Montreal, Quebec, was second to be celebrated as she was named an OUA West First Team All-Star. The athletic guard led the Lancers in scoring with 16.6 points per game, played over 27 minutes a night, and was second in the OUA in three-point field goals, with 49.
Along with Peklova, Tecumseh-native Laura Mullins was also named to the OUA West All Rookie team, demonstrating the talented recruitment the Lancers have benefited from in the last few years. It was just last season that Dranadia Roc was named the Rookie of the Year, as well.
Mullins, a human kinetics major, earned a starting spot in the Lancer lineup averaging just over 20 minutes per game, 9.2 points per game and led her team in shooting percentage with 45.8 per cent.
These ladies helped lead the team to its best season on record, 14-8, and home court advantage in the playoffs, where they were defeated in the OUA West Division finals to the McMaster Marauders.
Elsewhere in the OUA, Lindsay DeGroot of McMaster earned Player of the Year, Rachel Hart (McMaster), was Defensive Player of the Year, the Joy Bellinger Award was given to Becky Gallant of the Brock Badgers, and Coach of the Year went to McMaster’s Theresa Burns.
The Marauders won the OUA Women’s Basketball Championships, and placed third in the Canadian Interuniversity Sports national championships.
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