The "Stro Show" will be running for one more season down in the Lone Star State, and its star - a former Bayfield High School hoops standout - is already receiving positive reviews.
The upcoming 2015-16 basketball campaign marks the American Southwest Conference's 20th season. Concordia University's Kayla Strobel was recently named to the ASC Women's Basketball Watch List - a preseason all-star squad of sorts, composed of players nominated by the head coaches.
Though the bosses also predicted 'CTX' to take fourth in the NCAA Division III circuit's West Division, Strobel was one of three Tornados named on the West's 14-player list. The East's Watch List, by comparison, counted 20 individuals.
Now a senior forward at the Austin-based school, Strobel saw action in 23 of Concordia's 25 games last season, starting nine, and averaged 5.2 points and 2.3 rebounds in 15.5 minutes per contest. She shot 35 percent (42 of 120) from the floor and almost 33 percent (16-49) from three-point range, while nailing 76 percent (19-25) of her free-throw attempts.
Her scoring average ranked seventh on the team, and she led the Tornados on four occasions, with a season-best 16 in a Jan. 5 win over LeTourneau University. CTX's season, however, ended with a loss to University of Texas-Dallas in the single-elimination ASC Tournament's quarterfinals, leaving the team eager to improve upon a 9-16 (8-12 ASC) overall record.
That being noted, Strobel and Concordia begin their last winter together with a Nov. 16 exhibition game in Edinburg, Tex., at NCAA Div. I program UT-Rio Grande Valley. The official season starts on Nov. 17 in San Antonio at D-III Trinity University.
A trip to Seguin, Tex., to face Texas Lutheran then follows on Nov. 21 before the Tornados return to host the Kerrville-based Schreiner Mountaineers on Monday, Nov. 23, continuing their early-season examination of the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference.
Reigning SCAC Tournament champs and D-III National Championships-qualifying Southwestern University will then welcome Concordia to Georgetown, Tex., on the 28th to start their two-day Pirate Classic.
2015-16 ASC WOMEN'S BASKETBALL PROJECTED FINISHES: West-1.Howard Payne, 2.Hardin-Simmons, 3.University of Mary Hardin-Baylor, 4.CONCORDIA, 5.Sul Ross State. (Not postseason-eligible: McMurry University, reclassifying down from Div. II.)
East-1.UT-Tyler, 2.UT-Dallas, 3.Louisiana College, T-4.University of the Ozarks/East Texas Baptist University, 6.LeTourneau. (Not postseason-eligible: Belhaven University, Div. III provisional member.)
