Girls Basketball Season Recap

BY CAROLINE NAVE

“We all just wanted to win for each other.”

The Eden Prairie Girls’ Basketball team had a phenomenal season. They fnished the season with an overall record of 22-10 and were the champions of Section 2AAAA. Finally, they defeated Stillwater 69-54 and placed third in the state tournament. The team took the lead in halftime, with four players scoring in the double digits: senior Molly Lenz, senior Ashley Fritz, senior Annika Anderson, and sophomore Tori Schalgel. The Class 4A All-Tournament team also included two Eagles - Lenz and Anderson.

In an interview with Eden Prairie Local News, head coach Ellen Wiese said: “I think when all of us look back on this with some perspective, we’ll realize what an incredibly special year this was given the obstacles we had to overcome.” She also added that “it’s nothing short of incredible.” Sophomore guard Tori Schlagel also describes the season as incredible. When asked about the most memorable part of the season, she says that it was “probably the section fnals game. The atmosphere there was incredible and all the support from the community was really fun. The section fnal and the state games were incredible.” Tori also discussed the 2022 season and said that the buzzer-beater loss in the section fnals was “devastating.” This year, however, they had one of the best fnishes in school history. There were lots of contributors to the team’s success, but she says one of the big ones was the leadership of their seniors. She also said that “the seniors last year built a really good community within the program. We all just wanted to win for each other.”

The 2022-2023 Eden Prairie Girls Basketball team fought their way through injuries and losses to make history and achieve their third-place title at the MNHSL state tournament. Their 2023-2024 season starts this November, and the team will be captained by Vanessa Jordan, Tori Schlagel, and Abby Valiton. We can’t wait to see what the team accomplishes this season!