By Mark Potts
Valley City Times-Record

The Valley City State women’s basketball team enters the second half of the season as the surprise team of the Dakota Athletic Conference. After a disastrous 5-23 season last year, the Vikings were picked dead last in the DAC preseason poll, but a trio of new faces have made a world of difference.
Point guard Caitlyn Wojahn, center Abby Rittenhouse and freshman guard Emily Goedert have melded well with the returning core from last year and as the Vikings prepare to make their conference run they sit at 8-7 overall, 0-1 in the DAC. The conference loss was a 72-67 defeat at the hands of Jamestown, the No. 4 team in the NAIA Division II coaches poll. And although it was a loss, it was also a message to the DAC teams that Valley City State will not be a doormat this year.
Despite the Vikings improvement over last year, it will still be a tough run through the DAC. Three teams are ranked in the national poll – No. 4 Jamestown, No. 10 Black Hills State and No. 19 Dickinson State – and a fourth, Minot State, is receiving votes.
Black Hills (13-3, 2-0 DAC) sits atop the league with South Dakota School of Mines (6-11, 2-0 DAC). Both have defeated Mayville State (2-12, 0-2 DAC) and Dakota State (4-12, 0-2 DAC). Jamestown (11-1, 1-0 DAC) and Dickinson (10-4, 1-0) are lurking right behind. Dickinson defeated the DAC preseason No. 2 team, Minot (9-6, 0-1 DAC) in their conference opener.
For the Vikings to make a serious run in the tough conference head coach Jill DeVries said they’ll need consistent play, namely on defense.
“You can’t always be consistent shooting on offense,” she said. “But the one thing you can always consistently do is play good defense and rebound.”
The Vikings tipoff the second half of the schedule Friday at Dakota State. Despite being 4-12 on the year, the Lady T’s stack up right next to Valley City at just over 70 points scored a game. The difference has come on the defensive end where Dakota State gives up 77 points a game compared to 67 for Valley City.
“They’re losing some high scoring games,” said DeVries. “They can really put some points on the board so we’re going to have to play solid defense.”

For full story see Thursday's edition of the Valley City Times-Record.