April 23, 2010
STANFORD, Calif. - The Stanford women's basketball team, which finished the 2009-10 season with a program-record 36 wins and its second national championship game appearance in three years, celebrated the achievements of team and individual players at it's season-ending banquet Thursday night.
Family, fans and team and staff members gathered at the Faculty Club on the Stanford campus for a three-course meal which preceded the evening's program.
Women's basketball administrative assistant DeeDee Zawaydeh opened the program with her annual speech, mixing humor into her heartfelt comments about the team's efforts in 2009-10.
Head coach Tara VanDerveer, who guided the Cardinal to its ninth Final Four and fourth national championship game appearance, then took the stage, honoring the players by class, and between classes taking time to recognize the program's support staff for all of its hard work throughout the year.The evening's most emotional segment took place when VanDerveer called up the team's three departing seniors, Jayne Appel, Rosalyn Gold-Onwude and Michelle Harrison. VanDerveer ran off a list of accomplishments for each senior while expressing the unique contributions each had made to the program's success over the past four years as well as the challenges each senior had faced in their time on The Farm.
Following VanDerveer's tributes to the seniors, each of the three took the floor to address the crowd. There were some tears in the final speeches, heartfelt goodbyes, and many thank-yous for the coaches, teammates and fans.
Following the emotional speeches, the attendees turned their attention to the projection screen in the back of the ballroom, where a tribute video to the 2009-10 played. Put together by Director of Creative Video Bud Anderson, the video captured the emotion and the contributions of all 15 players and the coaches and staff during the successful campaign.
The evening then ended on a light-hearted note, with the annual presentation of the "Lizard Lung" award. With 2009 recipient Sarah Boothe doing the honors, the prestigious award broke tradition and was awarded to an upperclassman, as opposed to the traditional freshman recipient. Taking home the Lizard Lung Award was junior guard Hannah Donaghe.
Stanford will return to action in the fall of 2010, returning 12 letterwinners and adding the services of incoming freshmen Sara James, Toni Kokenis and Gatorade Player of the Year Chiney Ogwumike.