Heading into the Northwestern Athletic Conference Championship tournament, things were looking good for the Shoreline women’s basketball team. The Dolphins had amassed an 11-3 conference record to take sole possession of second place in the NWAC North standings. For their first tournament matchup, they drew Umpqua Community College, third-place finishers in the South.

Meanwhile, the men’s team fell just short of a tournament berth. The top four teams from each region qualify but they finished fifth with an even record of seven wins and seven losses.

Unfortunately, Shoreline were knocked out of the NWAC women’s tournament in their first match, upset by the lower seeded Umpqua.

At halftime, the Dolphins had a seven-point lead but the Riverhawks used a massive third quarter to come back and win. When the whistle blew to start the third quarter, the score was 41-34 in favor of SCC but by the end of the quarter, it was Umpqua with the lead as they outscored their opponents 22 points to 10.

It was a strong effort until the very end but Umpqua advanced with a final score of 78-71. The Riverhawks were led by Audrey Miller and Victoria Hollingshead who scored 25 and 22 points respectively. Taylor Eldredge led the Dolphins with 19 points, while four other players also scored in double digits, but it wasn’t enough to move on.

It was a disappointing end to her time at Shoreline for star sophomore guard Aloha Akaka who was hoping to lead her team all the way to an NWAC Championship. She scored just ten points in the game, a low for the shooter. She did however have a game-high five steals and will remain enshrined in SCC history as the all-time record steals holder with over 2 00 in her career.

Akaka was also named to the NWAC North First Team alongside freshman teammate Eldredge who finished her first season on a high note. After also being named NWAC North Freshman of the year Eldredge scored a team-high 19 points in Shoreline’s loss. This capped off a 28-game season where she scored in double figures in all but four games, with seven games scoring 20 or more points, and one matchup where she scored an unbelievable 39.

Overall, things are looking up for Shoreline basketball. They will hopefully retain terrific freshman talents Eldredge and Leiah Naeata and for the first time in the college’s history, they made back-to-back trips to the NWAC Sweet 16. The season may not have ended how the team would have hoped but they still managed to make history.