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Stanford women's basketball alltime team, part 4 (second team)
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Three members of Stanford's 1990 championship team are represented on our second-team alltime Stanford women's basketball squad.
This is the fourth of five installments of our 25 best players in the 35-year history of Stanford women's hoops, with the first team to be revealed over the next few days. The fifth team, fourth team and third team were revealed over the past several days, with changes sure to come over the next few years with the addition of recruits and the maturation of current players.
Any of the five players on this second-team squad deserve consideration for the first team, especially Jayne Appel, who was penalized, I suppose, for having another season to play. All five played under Tara VanDerveer.
The fact that three players from the same Stanford team are second-team selections is a testament to the strength of that 1990 team, which lost only one game and crusied through the NCAA tournament. Having such talented teammates no doubt also helped each individual become a star, though.
We have tried to pick five-person squads that could take the floor together, and although Sonja Henning is the only guard on the second team, the versatility of Kristin Folkl and Katy Steding would allow these five to play very well as a unit.
Here is our second team:
Jayne Appel, C – Unless her senior season is a major disappointment, Appel will be promoted to first-team status on the Stranford alltime team by this time next year. She was an all-American as a junior as well as Pac-10 player of the year, and if she improves next season as much as she did this year, she could jump into the discussion for being the best Stanford player ever. Appel is already seventh on Stanford’s career scoring list, third in rebounding and first in blocked shots. Her 57.9 percent career shooting percentage is second best at Stanford, and the 60.2 percent she shot this season was fourth best in school history. She scored 46 points in the NCAA tournament regional finals against Iowa State, and VanDerveer said she could have scored 60. Appel is too strong and too skilled to be guarded by one player, and the necessity to double team her makes every one of her teammates better.
Kristin Folkl, F – Folkl was probably the best athlete in Stanford women’s basketball history, perhaps the best female athlete in Stanford history, period. Strong, agile and a greap leaper, Folkl could have been more decorated as a college basketball player if she didn’t happen to be a great volleyball player too. She missed the first handful of games every season while being a four-time volleyball all-American, and missed her sophomore basketball season altogether to prepare for the 1996 Olympics in volleyball. Nonetheless, she was a first-team all-American and a national player-of-the-year finalist in basketball in 1998, even though she missed the first six games due to volleyball and the final several games when she tore her anterior crucite late in the season. She averaged 18.9 points and 9.2 rebounds that season, while shooting 69.5 percent, the school record for a single season. Her career shooting percentage of 64.4 percent is the Pac-10 record by a wide margin. Her absence was felt when Stanford, as a No. 1 seed, lost to No. 16 Harvard in the first round of the 1998 NCAA Tournament. She was eligible to return to Stanford for another season of basketball, but chose not to do so. Folkl is currently the Director of Development for the St. Louis Sports Commission.
Sonja Henning, G – Playing alongside Jennifer Azzi helped Henning and the Cardinal be successful, but it hurt Henning’s reputation as an individual star. Azzi got most of the accolades – and rightly so – but Henning was practically as good while remaining somewhat in the background. Henning was the best point guard Stanford ever had, and no position is more important to a team’s success. She is Stanford’s alltime leader in assists and steals, and she holds Stanford’s top two single-season assist totals. Henning was a three-time all-conference selection (1989, 1990, 1991) and a first-team Kodak All-American in 1991. She was a vital part of the 1990 national title team and the 1991 team that got to the Final Four. Henning also helped the USA Senior National team to the 1990 world championship. A graduate of Duke law school, Henning is an attorney who specializes in labor and employment litigation. She is also a member of the Portland school board.
Trisha Stevens, F – For all the talent Stanford had on its 1990 championship team – all five starters are among our top 25 Stanford players of alltime -- it was Stevens who led that team in scoring, averaging 17.6 points, as a junior. That same season she led the Pac-10 in field-goal percentage, at 54.9 percent, and she was named all-Pac-10 twice (1990, 1991). She is sixth on the school’s career scoring list (1,649 points) and sixth in field-goal percentage (53.4). Twice she scored 35 points in a game. Stevens was the head coach at Boise State before becoming the manager of public relations and communications for the College of Business and Economics at Boise State.
Katy Steding, F – A three-time all-conference player (1988, 1989, 1990), Steding was one of the most versatile Stanford players. She is ninth in career scoring at Stanford (1,586 points) and fourth in rebounds (864), yet was one of its best three-point shooters ever. Her 71 three-pointers during the 1990 championship season were the most on the team, and her 46.4 three-point shooting percentage that season led the Pac-10 that year and is the eighth-best in Pac-10 history. She twice led the Cardinal in rebounding, and also holds the school record for steals in a game with 10 in 1988. To prove it was no fluke, she had seven steals in a game in 1989. Steding was a member of the USA Olympic team that won a gold medal in 1996. Two months ago, she was named assistant coach for the WNBA’s new franchise in Atlanta, which has its first game next month.
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