by Alan Babbitt
Hope College women's basketball teammates Kenedy Schoonveld and Olivia Voskuil have been selected as Great Lakes Region First Team honorees by D3hoops.com.
The two seniors are among five first-team selections and 10 all-region honorees.
Schoonveld also was named co-Great Lakes Region Player of the Year along with John Carroll University (Ohio) forward Nicole Heffington.
Both Schoonveld and Voskuil were catalysts for the Flying Dutch's run to back-to-back unbeaten seasons with a 16-0 overall record.
Hope also repeated as MIAA regular-season and tournament champions and finished No. 1 in the D3hoops poll for the second consecutive season. The Flying Dutch pushed their winning streak to a school-record 45 games that is the eighth-longest winning streak in NCAA Division III history.
Schoonveld, a social work major, was the first member of the Flying Dutch to earn MIAA MVP distinction in back-to-back seasons and third to receive the honor more than once. She also earned All-MIAA First Team distinction for the fourth time.
The senior guard from Zeeland, Michigan (Holland Christian HS) topped the Flying Dutch in scoring at 10.2 points per game while shooting 48.8 percent from the field. She also averaged 3.6 rebounds and 1.8 assists per game while committing only 0.6 turnovers per game.
On January 30, Schoonveld became the 17th Hope women's basketball team to reach 1,000 career points.
"She had a super consistent year. She guarded the other team's best perimeter player all year long. She was very efficient from the field and 3," Morehouse said. "Another untold story was her leadership; it was fantastic this year on and off the court."
Voskuil, a civil engineering major, is a three-time MIAA Defensive Player of the Year and three-time, All-MIAA First Team selection.
A senior forward from Holland, Michigan (Holland Christian), Voskuil led the MIAA in steals at 2.3 per game and finished second in blocked shots at 2.1 per game. Voskuil also contributed 9.3 points and a team-leading 6.3 rebounds per game.
"(Olivia) just would wreck the other team's offensive plans," Morehouse said. "She blows up everything everybody wants to do — not only is she long and blocks shots, the number of steals she gets. You could see her grow, from her freshman year to her senior year, on where people are going to try and attack us. She'd step into passing lanes to help out her teammates when she saw something developing. It's absolutely amazing. She is the best defensive player I have ever coached."
