Three selected to All-SCIAC, Chapman coaches honored again

ORANGE, Calif. –  The second SCIAC regular season championship in school history led to the three All-SCIAC selections and a second Coaching Staff of the Year honor for the Chapman University women's basketball team. Senior Lauren Sato and sophomore Jaryn Fajardo were selected to the All-SCIAC First Team while senior Megan Charles earned a Second Team nod.

For the second year in a row, head coach Carol Jue and her staff were named the SCIAC Coaching Staff of the Year. Jue led the Panthers to another SCIAC Postseason Tournament appearance and their third appearance in the final. Chapman claimed its second regular season SCIAC regular season title with a 13-3 conference record. Jue and the women's basketball staff are the first to win Coaching Staff of the Year multiple times in any sport at Chapman. It is the fifth coaching honor of Jue's career as she has previously won the Coach of the Year three times for the Association of Division III Independents.

Fajardo earned her first career All-SCIAC honors after leading the SCIAC in assists by over 30. Her 122 assists this season rank just outside the top-5 seasons in Chapman history. With 95 of those 122 assists coming in SCIAC play, Fajardo had nearly double the next assist leader in the conference. She ranked in the top-50 in all of Division III with 4.5 assists per game. She also ranked 12th in the nation and tops in the conference with a 2.4 assist-to-turnover ratio.

Chapman's point guard from Torrance, Calif., also ranked 15th in the SCIAC in scoring with 11 points per game, 15th in rebounding with 5.5 rebounds per game, and third with 2.1 steals per game.

Sato was selected to the All-SCIAC team for the second time in her career but earned her first First Team honors. She scored a career-best 12.7 points per game this season and scored an even better 14.4 points per game in SCIAC games to tie for the team lead. She ranked fifth in the conference in scoring, eighth in steals and fourth in three-point percentage.

The senior guard from Torrance, Calif., nearly doubled her career-best beyond the arc. She doubled her career total with 50 three-pointers this year alone and drained them at a career-best rate of 34.7 percent. Her 50 made threes were second in the conference only to teammate Jaime Hum-Nishikado.

Charles also ended her career with her second career All-SCIAC selection, earning Second Team honors. She was Chapman's leading scorer for the second year in a row with 13.8 points per game this year and even better 14.4 points per game average in SCIAC games. She averaged just over 25 minutes per game to score over 14 points and led the conference with an average of nearly 23 points per 40 minutes played.

The Panthers season came to a close with the loss to Claremont-Mudd-Scripps in the SCIAC Postseason Tournament final. Chapman has made the tournament in each of its first five years in the league and advanced to the final three times.

by Steven Olveda
Sports Information Director

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