Faster. More aggressive. Deeper. And way more fun. That’s how four freshmen have transformed the women’s basketball team, say senior guards Susan King Borchardt and Kelley Suminski.
“This is a whole different look for us,” Borchardt says. “We knew we had some great players coming in, and they have brought so much energy and a new excitement, which is really refreshing when you’ve been here longer.”
Spoken like a veteran. Borchardt started all 75 games she appeared in during the past four seasons, between battling knee and foot injuries. This year, she sat out the nonconference games with a stress fracture in her left foot, but began knocking down three-pointers at the start of the Pac-10 season.
Suminski, meanwhile, has been flashing the same huge grin that followed her game-winning shot against Vanderbilt in last year’s NCAA Sweet Sixteen. She says freshmen Candice Wiggins, Cissy Pierce, Christy Titchenal and Jessica Elway contribute athleticism and quickness. “We’re pressing more this year than we have in the past three years, and it’s been fun to get turnovers,” the four-year starter says.
Due to Borchardt’s injury, Wiggins made her college debut as a starter. Her impact was immediate: she leads the team with 16.7 points per game. “Candice is a tremendous player and we’re very excited that she’s playing with us and not against us,” says Suminski.
The 5-foot-11 Wiggins captained the USA Junior National Team that brought home gold last summer and is redshirting as a varsity volleyball player this year. “I didn’t have any idea how much playing time I’d get—this is really awesome,” she says. “And I think the reason why our team is so great is because there’s authentic chemistry and genuine camaraderie—it’s not fake.”
The fourth-ranked Cardinal (19-2, 10-1 Pac-10) won eight straight games to start the season, beating three schools by margins of more than 35 points to make it the best opener since 2001-02. Suminski was on that squad as a freshman, and she says team expectations are at least as high this year. “We used to not really think about an NCAA national championship, but this year we’re talking about it,” says Suminski, who usually gives the pregame pep talk for guards. “We’re a confident team, and we do have high hopes of going to the Final Four. We really, really want it.”
Borchardt chose to return for a final season in spite of the separation it means for her and husband Curtis, ’03, a former Stanford star who now plays for the Utah Jazz. “It’s hard not to be with him, but this is the one and only opportunity I’m going to have [to win a national championship],” she says. “I’ve dreamed of playing Stanford basketball since I first started getting recruited, and I didn’t want to look back and say, ‘I wish I would have.’ Especially not with the group of girls we have this year.”
The Borchardts spent the summer working out together at the Jazz facility in Utah, and Susan says both of them are playing at a higher level as a result. “You might laugh, but we played a lot of one-on-one, and I think his foot quickness improved.”
This season, Suminski became the 25th player in Stanford history to score 1,000 points. She was named a preseason candidate for the Wooden and Naismith awards, both of which recognize the top female basketball player in the nation, and for the Senior CLASS (Celebrating Loyalty and Achievement for Staying in School) Award. Wiggins may well follow in her footsteps. “There aren’t many things I can help her with on skills because she’s probably surpassing me in that area,” Suminski says. “But when she has a question about running offense and other things the coaches have been telling me for three years, hopefully I’m there for her.”
For Wiggins, who saw her first game at Maples when she was a freshman in high school, it’s “crazy” to be on the court with Suminski and Borchardt. “Kelley’s game is so solid, and everything she does is with a purpose,” she says. “And Susan is just an amazing natural leader who has such a positive attitude. We have such an awesome backcourt with the seniors.”
“I love the company of these guards,” head coach Tara VanDerveer said as she sat with Suminski, Borchardt and Wiggins at a postgame press conference on January 20, after the three combined for 54 points in Stanford’s 100-75 rout of UCLA. “They organize the floor, they are incredibly unselfish and they knock down shots.”
The win was the first 100-point game for the Cardinal since 2002. “It’s orchestrated right here, with these three,” VanDerveer said. “These are the people who really run things.”
